A boy named Matthew
by TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsLazuli
Summary: A boy begins making stories about a place called Cloud 9, a fantasy world where all his favorite fictional characters live. When he finds out Cloud 9 is real he gets taken there and becomes being worshipped as a God. But when things go awry In this paradise, Matthew begins to question if Cloud 9 is as great and amazing as his stories were. Sexuality, swearing and violence.
1. Field trip

"Hurry up, son! We need to go now, or we'll miss it!" A woman called from the living room.

"I'm almost done, Mom!" Matthew shouted from his bedroom.

Matthew was running late for a very important event he had to attend to. He had mistakenly said the wrong time to his parents, and his little few would be ruined if he screwed this up.

Matthew was throwing everything he needed into his duffel; clothes for a few days, his phone and charger, headphones, various notebooks, pens, pencils, his cutting knife, glasses case, and a few snacks. Then he put on his favorite Star Wars hoodie, grabbed his duffel bag and walked out of his room.

His parents and sister were already in the Trailblazer, his father honking the horn from outside. Matthew ran outside and entered the truck, sitting next to his sister Justice. The truck slowly backed out of the driveway and sped off.

Before Matthew could even relax, Justice started asking questions.

"How long will you be gone?"

"About a week." He answered.

"What exactly are you doing?"

"Calm down, hermana major, it's just a field trip to a writing school in Ohio. It's going to be awesome I'll get to learn more honing my writing skills as an author, and I get to meet a few of my favorite authors, James Patterson and Rick Riordan."

" I still don't see why you need to go." Spoke up his father. "You're amazingly talented as it is, so you'd be wasting your time."

" I already told you, there's always room for improvement I can't publish anything if my work looks like a 14 year old wrote it. It'll look over unprofessional."

The truck got real quiet after Matthew said that, but he didn't care. He knew what he was talking about, even if his father didn't. Wanting to have time with his thoughts, he grabbed his phone and ear buds, scrolled down to his music playlist, and clicked a song. "Piano Man" by Billy Joel played in his ears. Even though he wasn't alone, he began to sing.

"It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in."

"There's an old man standing next to me,"

"Making love to his tonic and gin."

Justice recognized the song. She took Matthew's hand and begun singing too.

"He says 'Son can you play me a memory?"

"I'm not really sure how it goes."

"But it's sad and it's sweet, and I knew it complete,"

"When I wore a younger man's clothes."

Matthew loved singing with his big sister. In fact he loved doing everything with her. People though it was weird how close the pair were, even their own parents, but Justice was his all-time favorite person. She wasn't an asshole like most older sister were, far from it. She was kind, caring, sweet, and made Matthew feel like the most important person in the world. He loved his sister, and she loved him back.

He'd do anything for her.

Anything.

 **At** **the** **school** **bus**...

It was a rather tearful departure for the family. Matthew felt relieved to be leaving his family behind, but he hated being apart from Justice for so long. With tears in his eyes, he hugged his sister tighter than ever before. It had been years since they were separated, and that was the worse day of his life...

"Don't worry, Matt." Justice said reassuringly. "You'll see me sooner than you expect."

He didn't know what she meant by that, but he hugged her closer and kissed her cheek before pulling away. He grabbed his bag and got on the bus.

Then one by one the other students at his school got on the bus. Matthew scanned the faces of tH oncoming crowd boarding the bus.

Then he saw her.

The most beautiful girl at his school.

Her name was Ellie Williams.

The love of his life.

'Please.' Matthew thought to himself. 'Sit by me.'

As Ellie began walking down the aisle, many of the seats were already taken, so it seemingly looked like she would end up sitting by Matthew. His heart rose and then promptly sank when she sat down with one of her friends.

"Oh well." He said miserably to himself. "Alone again."

As tH last remaining students took the I seats, the bus driver started the bus up. While the bus began it's slow acceleration, Matthew looked out of the bus window and gave his family one final goodnight. Then after they disappeared from his sight, he immediately pulled out his ear buds, put them on, and blared his music, as he did on all long trips. This time he was listening to a song called "Civil War" by Guns 'n Roses. It was one of those heavy rock songs, a genre he didn't care much for until just recently when Justice properly introduced him to it.

He was getting bored already, so he dug around in his bag until he pulled out a pencil and a journal labeled "Cloud 9". He opened it to the page he left on and began to write.

As most people know about him, Matthew absolutely loved to write his stories. He would write about a fantasy world where all his favorite fictional characters live and he reigns as their God. Cloud 9 was an idea Matthew had come up with when he was just beginning to enjoy playing video games. He'd daydream about hanging out with his all-time favorite video game characters ever since he was a young boy, and eventually his fantasies carried over to his personal library and his most-watched shows, respectively expanding his imaginary world's population tenfold.

As much happiness as this world brought to him, it always depressed Matthew that this magical world would never be anything more than a dream, so he decided to start writing stories about Cloud 9, making himself an all powerful God since he "created" this fantasy world with his constant daydreaming. Very personal, yet also something Matthew desperately wanted to share with the world and those around him.

Even though he was a God in his stories, in real life Matthew was quite the opposite. Matthew was one suffering from crippling loneliness, and without the company of any friends, that same loneliness soon led to a dangerously high level of depression within him. Without the constant writing of stories and the overwhelming support from Justice, Matthew would have no reason to live. Not in a suicidal way (although it has crossed his mind before), his life would just be sad and boring.

His stories were his solitude, and he was happy with that.

He was happy being the God known as Eskalion.

He was also happy with the trip he was going on. His school had paid for a field trip to a writing school for the last week of school. All the 8th graders got to have a massive graduation ceremony at The University of Creative Works, and as a special treat, a few of Matthew's favorite authors were there, including James Patterson and Rick Riordan. Matthew was so excited to be meeting such talented writers and being the aspiring writer he was, he planned on asking for pointers on how to make his writing better and more professional. And he couldn't wait to show the authors his completed stories. Cloud 9 was very important to Matthew, it was everything he stood for as the young transcendent boy he was. He desperately yearned to know if there was anyone else out there in the world like him that would find just as much happiness in his stories as Matthew did.

Apart from being a dream Matthew wanted to tell the world, it was also a chance for him to make more friends. After all, who doesn't like a good book series?

Matthew found himself growing more and more impatient to get to UCW, he was ready! And he was also ready to spend the week in a fancy hotel in between visits to the school and...

The bus screeched to a stop, jolting Matthew's attention to the front of the vehicle.

He saw his English teacher Ms. Watts standing by the bus driver, about to address the class.

"Ok class, listen up!" She announced, adjusting her glasses. "We've arrived at the hotel we're staying in."

The bus erupted with cheers of joy.

"Ok class settle down. Class... CLASS!"

The bus quickly quieted down.

"Ok, now everyone exit the bus calmly and carefully, keyword being carefully." She finished.

Th students silently gathered their belongings and one by one got off the school bus. Matthew put his ear buds back in, cranked up the music and proceeded to grab his own bag and then follow the rest of his classmates out of the bus.

As the class of almost-high schoolers stepped out, they gasped in awe at the luxurious building before them.

"Welcome to the Madison Hotel!" Ms. Watts cheered.

The hotel they gasped upon looked like the kind of place only the wealthy would stay, not a bunch of middle schoolers from Flint, Michigan.

"Come now, children. Let get our rooms for the night. Quickly now, it's getting late. We have to be up early or the bus will leave without us." Instructed Ms. Watts.

As the group entered the building, Matthew knew he'd enjoy his stay.

The interior of the hotel was magnificent. Above the front desk hung a huge diamond chandelier that reflected all of the hotel's interior lights, almost looking like a mini sun inside the hotel. To both tH left and right of the front desk were elevators leading to upper rooms and evidently a skyrocket. Matthew made a mental note to himself to visit this place before their departure tH following morning.

As Ms. Watts gathered up tH children, she told them to assemble in groups they'd like to bunk in the same room with for the night. Within seconds everyone was in groups with their friends, and couples came together to ensure the lovebirds would get a room by themselves.

Which left Matthew alone. Again.

He sighed. Then he had an idea.

He walked over to Ms. Watts.

"Hey ?"

"Yes, what is it Matthew?" She asked.

"Um." He nervously began, shifting on his feet. "Well, it appears I'm going to be in a room alone tonight. I don't like the idea of being alone at night."

"I see." Ms. Watts replied. "Would you like for me to pair you up with someone?"

"I'd like that."

"With whom would you like to bunk with?" She asked.

"Well, there's this girl I kinda like, and - "

" So the rumors are true." She said with a smile. "You're in love with Ellie Williams." She added teasingly.

Matthew blushed in response.

"Say no more, I'll handle it" Ms. Watts said reassuringly.

"Thank you very much, Ms. Watts." Said Matthew with gratitude.

She glanced at her watch. "Great Scott, it's half past 7! Ok class, take your keywords and head up to your rooms for tonight. Good night everyone!"

One by one the students along with Matthew packed up the elevators and rode up to their rooms for the night.

Unbeknownst to Matthew, Ms. Watts had talked with Ellie, but because he was lonely. It was finally time to bring the king home...

 **This is my first fanfic and my first chapter, so I hope you enjoyed it. It's kinda slow now, but things Will quickly pick up I'm Chapter 2. Until next time, good bye.**

 **P.S, I'm going to be updating and adding more chapters all summer, so don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.**


	2. An unexpected surprise

**Hey guys, back with another chapter already. Don't know if I can update this quick every time, but we'll just have to see what happens.**

 **Also, this chapter is a bit...steamy, but just read it until the steaminess bit is done and it'll make much more sense. So yeah.**

 **Enjoy my Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.**

 **P.S, if you can figure out what game Ellie is from, message me via my info on my profile or PM me.**

* * *

Matthew plopped down on the plush hotel bed and let out a relaxed sigh. It had been a long day for him and he was looking forward to just relaxing for the remainder of the night, and as an added bonus he got to enjoy the company of the love of his life.

Whenever she got here.

Matthew decide to do some writing while he waited d for Ellie. He grabbed his notebook and pencil and sat down at the desk that sat next to a huge flat screen TV. Before he began he put in his ear buds and put on a Lindsey Stirling song called "Master of Tides". Sweet, violin pirate music.

He continued where he left off. He had been describing a scene he'd fantasize about day after day; A love scene with Ellie.

Yes, Matthew wrote about Ellie in his stories. His version of Ellie was one who was in love with him and became his wife. He also wasn't afraid to describe and detail sexual situations regarding Ellie and himself. It didn't show he was perverted, no. It just showed that he was very deeply in love with Ellie and was prepared to do everything a couple would do if he ever became her boyfriend. But unfortunately that was just Matthew's wishful thinking.

Matthew went on to make this particular scene as steamy as possible. Make tH setting romantic, casually get closer and kiss her, and then the clothes start to come off...

The opening of the hotel door made Matthew instinctively close his notebook and look up to see who entered. His senses quickly heightened when the real Ellie came in and closed the door behind her.

"Hiya, Matthew." She said happily.

"Hey." He replied meekly.

Ellie made her way over to the bed Matthew sat on, set her bag down and riffled through it. She took out some toiletries and some clothes, then went to one of the closets and pulled out a white towel.

"I'm going to take a shower." She said. "Don't you go peeking." She added teasingly.

"Nope. There'll be no peeking from this guy." Matthew said awkwardly, face feeling hot.

Ellie smiled and went to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Shortly after that Matthew could hear the sound of rushing water coming from inside the bathroom.

Matthew tried to go back to writing, but the idea of Ellie bathing herself in the next room distracted him. All he could do was sit and state at the bathroom door imagining Ellie in all her naked glory. Then something completely unexpected happened...

"Matthew! Um, can you come in here real quick? I need help with something real quick."

Matthew's heart skipped a beat and he gulped. What should he do? It would be wrong to help her in the shower, but it was very tempting.

Hey didn't respond, so Ellie called out again.

"Matthew, you there? Or can you not hear me because you have your ear buds in?"

"No, I hear you." Answered Matthew, silently cursing himself for responding.

"Well come on, I'm not naked yet!" She urged impatiently.

Matthew, mustering all the courage within him, walked over to the bathroom and opened the door.

Ellie had her back facing him. She was wearing clothes for the waist down but for the waist up she wore nothing but a white lacy bra. She was reaching behind her back and struggling to undo her bra. As she tried to undo the clasp, Matthew couldn't tear his gaze from her mostly bare back. His heart fluttered and he could feel the familiar feeling of his loins tighten.

"Matthew, come give me a hand." Said Ellie sheepishly.

Matthew didn't move. All he could do was admire her. Her auburn hair pulled into a ponytail, her soft-looking pale skin, and her small frame.

Ellie turned to face him, granting him a perfect view of her bra-covered breasts. For a while she started at him with those beautiful green eyes of hers.

"Matthew." Ellie said softly. "Please don't just stand there and stare at me."

Ellie turned back around and Matthew told hold of the bra's clasp. He undid it and her bra fell to the floor, freeing her beautiful breasts.

Now, having helped her already, Matthew tried pulling away, but out of nowhere Ellie grabbed his hands and brought them to her breasts.

Many feelings immediately went rushing though Matthew's head; panic, confusion, lust, shock.

"E-Ellie." Stuttered Matthew. "What are you d-doing?"

"What's wrong, Matthew? I thought you loved me." Ellie cooly replied.

"W-what? What gave you that-"

"I know you have feeling for me, Matthew." She said, squeezing his hands on her breasts, making him even more nervous.

Matthew didn't know how to react, so he just stood there while Ellie used his hands to pinch her nipples.

She turned to face him, showing her bare breasts to Matthew.

"Take off my pants." She instructed.

Matthew had absolutely no hesitation in kneeling down and unbuttoning her pants. He slowly pulled her pants down to her knees, revealing Ellie's matching panties.

"Matthew."

He looked up at her and noticed something in her hand. Before he could react she thrusted a syringe into his neck and injected something.

Pain rushed through his body and he fell over. Then within a few seconds the pain worsened and suddenly he couldn't move. He was paralyzed.

"Works every time." Ellie said as she stood over him. "Get them alone, show some skin, and guys turn to putty in my hands."

Matthew couldn't move or say anything in response. He could only blink.

Ellie walked away from his sigh. While she was gone, Matthew sat there scared and confused as to why she did this to him.

A few minutes later she came back, still topless. In one hand she held a cell phone and in the other she held Matthew's Cloud 9 notebook.

'Why does she have those?' He asked himself silently.

Ellie began looking through the notebook and reading the content. Matthew was internally panicking, as he was afraid she'd see the inappropriate scene he and Ellie and taken part of, which was much more sexual than what had just conspired.

After a few minutes she looked up from the notebook and said something that confused Matthew even further.

"You're the one I'm looking for. The one I was sent here for."

She set the notebook down on the bathroom counter and reached down to get something from her pants. She pulled out another syringe, this time a red liquid and one else down by Matthew's side. Then she leaned down and whispered in his ear.

"I know you must be very confused, but I promise everything will make sense soon. Hope you like playing with my breasts, cause it's the last time that'll ever happen." Then she stuck the needle in the same place as last time and injected it.

Matthew started to get really tired from whatever he was just filled with, and his vision slowly started to fade. Rough before he lost consciousness, he saw Ellie call someone on her phone, then a few seconds later say "It's him. I need immediate pickup...Madison Hotel...good. Tell the others that the king is coming home."

* * *

When Matthew woke up, he immediately knew something was wrong. He was sitting in a wooden chair in a room he'd never seen before. He tried to move but he found that he was bound to the chair with a very thick rope that looked like nothing could cut through it, which threw any hopes of escape down the drain.

He observed the room him. The room itself was rather small, with grey walls and deep scratches all over them. He wondered what could have made those deep scratches.

Right in front of him was a brown folding table. The door to the cell-like room was behind the desk a couple of meters, and the wall to his right had a large mirror that nearly took up the whole wall. Oddly enough, Matthew though the room looked strangely familiar. Then he realized why. It reminded him of one of those interrogation rooms that are always in cop shows. If that was the case, then the mirror was actually a one-sided window. People might be staring at him and he would never know. That deeply disturbed Matthew and made him scared very much.

Suddenly the door opened and surprisingly, Ellie came in and shut the door. She made her way to the desk and sat down on the edge closest to him, staring him in the eye. Usually Matthew's heart would do jumping jacks whenever he saw her, but this time he was absolutely terrified due to her putting him to sleep. As if that wasn't enough, Ellie gave him a very cold and unnerving look that furthered his fear even more.

He was about to ask where he was and what she wanted with him, but she spoke first.

"How you feeling?" She asked, sounding genuinely concerned for him.

Matthew, taken aback from her unexpected question, answered with "Really confused. And absolutely terrified right now."

She nodded, as if that was the answer she was expecting.

"Before I say anything, just know this. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to talk. For now at least." She said.

"Thank you." Replied Matthew. "That does make me feel better.

Ellie pulled something out of a bag she brought in, one he hadn't noticed when she first came in. She pulled out a bunch of notebooks. Matthew quickly recognized them as all the stories he's made, those he finished and those that were incomplete.

"Tell me what these are about." Demanded Ellie.

"If you have them, then you already know what they're about." Matthew said.

"Humor me."

Matthew didn't say anything at first. He didn't like explaining his stories to people he didn't trust, and right now he have zero trust for Ellie. Reluctantly, she took a deep breath and spoke.

"It's about a place called Cloud 9," he started. "It's a place where all my favorite fictional characters live. The story goes that I make a place out of pure thought, like a God, and I live there. The people worship me, and I become this all powerful being with all sorts of superpowers. Then a bunch of wars happen and lots of stuff happens and I begin to question if Cloud 9 was everything I had hoped for. But I'm not the only person telling the story, a bunch of other people are as well. I write these stories because I'm... lonely. And depression is hard for me. It seems like no one loves me. I'm abused sometimes, I have no friends, and if I wasn't tied up right now, I'd show you the cuts all over my arms. Cloud 9 is everything to me. And I'd do anything for it to exist." He finished, tears running down his cheeks and fogging up his glasses.

The two of them just started at each other for a while. Matthew soon grew angry at Ellie. He'd just bared his soul to the girl he thought he was madly in love with, and she just sat there, saying nothing to him.

He was about to have a yelling fit when Ellie spoke.

"Thank you, Matthew. I know that was hard for you to share and I'm very appreciative."

Matthew lost it. He screamed "That's it!? That's all? I just told you my deepest, darkest secret, and now you have nothing to say to me!?"

"I know this is confusing, and I'm sorry for that," Ellie said. "But there's a lot you need to know. So I think you should talk to someone who knows the whole situation. Just whatever you do, don't freak out."

Ellie pulled her cell phone out of the bag and called a number." Send her in."

The door opened and the person that Matthew would least expect came in. She had brown shoulder-length hair, Brown eyes and she wore a red dress. She stood there and smiled at Matthew, proving that the two were already familiarized with each other.

He couldn't believe it. The person was someone he knew very well, or at least someone he thought he knew very well. He had no clue why she was here. Wherever "here" was.

"Hello Matthew." She said with a bright smile.

"Hello...Justice."

* * *

 **So there's chapter 2 guys, hope you enjoyed it. Chapter 3 will most likely be up on Friday or sometime over the weekend. Take care!**


	3. First Blood

**Hey guys, here's chapter 3 already. This is a very important chapter, it introduces some characters of the fandoms I'm including in this fantasy world, an OC a friend of mine created, and the first actual battle that Matthew takes part of. Will he be afraid to take a life when necessary, or will he just go with the flow and go all Call of Duty on the enemy? Some of this may seem confusing, but It'll make more sense in the chapters that follow. So yeah.**

 **Enjoy my beautiful dark twisted fantasy.**

Justice came over and sat on the table next to Ellie. Matthew was still in a state of shock. Why was his sister here? Where was he? Why did Ellie ask about his stories?

"I can tell your confused, so give me time to explain myself, ok?" Said Justice.

Matthew stayed silent, so she began. "Ellie brought you here because we needed to know a few things that only you knew. That's why you're in this interrogation room. As for the rope, it was a safety precaution. We didn't know how you'd react to all this."

"And for the time being," Ellie added. We need to ask you one more question about your stories. Does Cloud 9 have any magic?"

Against his better judgment, Matthew answered. "Cloud 9 has all sorts of magic. It's basically like the Marvel comics, some people have powers and some don't. People can learn magic, and some can be born with it. Apart from magic, there are also a multitude of technologies from some of my most preferred stories, such as weapons and vehicles from Star Wars, and items from things such as Bioshock. In Bioshock there are these potions you can drink that give you question certain power you can keep for the rest of your life. There are also various other things of magical or technological items, but those can be from anything I like."

"That was the answer I was hoping for." Justice said.

Matthew was growing tired of these mind games. ".Tell me what you want from me?"

Ellie and Justice just looked at each other, unsure of what to do. After a silent discussion between the two, Justice spoke up.

"Ellie and I aren't exactly who you think we are."

"Are you not my sister? The one person I thought who actually loved me for everything I was!?" He said angrily.

"No, I am your sister, and I do love you. But what you don't know is that everything you are is more important than anything you could ever imagine."

"And why is that?" He asked.

Justice tool a deep breath, and spoke. "Because...Cloud 9 is real, and you're here right now."

"Oh, fuck you!" Matthew yelled furiously. "Quit fucking with me, I'm already a mess as it is. I'm a terrible author, I have no friends, and the two loves of my life kidnapped me and probably poisoned me so I die a painful death. Who would've thought that the few people I cared about would do this to me. I don't ever use profanity, but fuck the both of you and I hope you fucking burn in Hell for Eternity, assholes."

Ellie flew off the table, pulled a pistol out of the bag and aimed it right at Matthew's chest.

"Oh, so now you're gonna shoot me? Do it then, bitch! End me already, it's not like I have anything or anyone else to live for anyhow." As angry as he was, Matthew had tears streaming down his cheeks. He was hurt bad, far worse than any beating or self-abuse could do. He was ready to die, he didn't have any reason to be alive anymore.

"What should I do, Justice?" Asked Ellie.

Suddenly the lights went out. A faint explosion rocked the building.

"Dammit!" Justice hissed. "They're here."

"Come on, we have to meet up with Camulus or this base is going under." Replied Ellie.

In the darkness Matthew could hear them get up and leave the room. Then the lights came back on, and in their place stood a boy. He had fair skin, Brown eyes and curly brown hair. Matthew immediately recognized the big, which was a major problem because... well, he doesn't actually exist.

Matthew couldn't believe it. Here, sitting right in front of him, was a character from one of his all-time favorite shows...

"Hello!" Said the boy. "I'm, sorry if this is awkward. You know who I am, right?"

His words losing him, Matthew nodded.

"Then now you know that Queen Mary wasn't lying to you when she said you're in Cloud 9."

"But how?" Matthew questioned. "How is this even possible?"

The Boy shrugged. "I don't know, but there are some people you can ask that question, and i think they'll know. But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to prove that you're in Cloud 9, and we need you, Eskalion."

Matthew gasped. The Boy called him by his God name.

The Boy untied Matthew and made his way to the door and opened it.

"Wait, where are you going?" He asked.

"To look for my family. There's a war outside and I need to make sure they're ok. They'll be a group of people coming to get you."

The Boy looked back one last time at Matthew.

"If Queen Mary gets angry because you're untied, tell her that Steven Quartz Universe let you go." And he was off.

Many different emotions rushed through Matthew's head as he sat there in the chair still, now freed from the tight bond of the rope. He couldn't believe a character from his favorite cartoon was alive. It made sense since Matthew had him in his stories, but they were just stories. There's no way any of this is real...could it?

And if all this was real, what did that mean for Matthew? Would he rule over the people of Cloud 9 like he had wrote it so, or would he just become a regular citizen?

If everything he wrote down was true, then there would be terrible things coming his way, as well as for people from the Real World...

The door slammed open into the wall. Matthew jumped as a squad of people in black uniforms armed with guns marched in. There were 4 people in total, and all but one of them wore helmets that covered up their faces. The one who didn't wear one had fair skin, short brown hair and sea green eyes. In his hands was an M16 assault rifle, and on his hip was a sidearm. Strangely, he also had a sword sheathed in a scabbard on his belt. Strangest of all he looked like he was only 17 years old.

"Are you Matthew James Williams?" The helmet-less teenager asked.

Matthew nodded, still in shock from the perpetual scene before him.

"Then come with us." He said. Then he unholstered his sidearm, an M1911 pistol, and handed it to Matthew.

"Trust me, you're going to need it." The soldier said.

Even though he'd never used a gun and didn't want it, Matthew took it anyway.

"Let's go. You're an HVT, so stay with us at all times."

"Wait," Matthew said. "Who are you? Are you from Cloud 9 too?"

"My name is Perseus Jackson, son of the long dead God Poseidon, now come on, we haven't much time."

Matthew followed the armed squad of soldiers out of the room, leading him down a long hallway. Soldiers and personnel were scrambling off in all different directions to what he could only assume were their battle stations. He was wondering what was going on and why was there a war about to break out.

"Um, can I ask what's going on?" He piped up.

"Reich forces are attacking the city, so we need to defend this position. But you're more important, so we're moving you to a secure location." Answered Perseus.

"Percy, the Reich has us surrounded." Said one of the soldiers in a female voice. "The only way out is through them."

"I gave him a gun." Percy said in his defense. "He'll be fine."

"About that, I've never used a gun." Matthew admitted.

"He's never even used a gun before." One of the other soldiers said, also female.

"Then teach him real quick, Hazel." Percy shot back.

The soldier called Hazel took hold of Matthew's hand with the gun and pointed it at an imaginary enemy. "You point and shoot. Use these knobs to aim at an enemy, and aim for the waist up. Congratulations, you've passed firing guns 101. Now get ready to use it."

"What do I do if the bad guys shoot back?" He asked.

"Either take cover, or shoot first. Like Han Solo did to Greedo." She replied, pointing at my Star Wars hoodie.

Percy stopped at an opened up area at the end of the hall, like a really big hanger for planes. Then Matthew realized it was quite hanger. Instead of planes there were all sorts of military trucks and transports, and along the walls were artillery shells for anti-aircraft guns.

At the other side of the hanger was a huge wall-sized door that was open. Outside was a large group of soldiers that were setting up sand bags for cover and prepping machines guns nests all around the exterior of the building they were in. Some soldiers were entering vehicles and driving off to who knows where, while most of them were gathering weapons and ammo and taking defensive positions around the base. Matthew was concerned by the amount of firepower the soldiers were packing. It looked like they were preparing for total war.

Upon exiting through the hanger door, he noticed that there were not one but many other buildings in the relative area nearby, some close and some farther away by a few miles or so. It appeared that forces at the other buildings were also preparing for battle.

Percy put a finger to a small earpiece in his ear. "How far out are Hugo's men?"

A few seconds later he said with a serious tone "ETA is 30 seconds."

"There's no way we can move him by land, we need to put him on a chopper." Said the female soldier who first spoke earlier.

"No can do, Corduroy. Annabeth says there are fighter nets in the sky and they have orders to shoot down any non-Reich bird in the air." Replied Percy. "We're gonna have to fight, and he's going to fight with us. Trust me it's a good things he's here to experience this. This war is no where near over."

"Literally standing right here, guys." Said Matthew, clearly annoyed that they were talking as if he wasn't there.

"Sorry about them doing that." Said the only soldier who hadn't spoken yet. "It's been a long day, as you can tell. It's not everyday you're ordered to escort your king to safety. I'm Nik, by the way."

"Well Nik, who's the king?" Asked Matthew.

The soldiers looked at each other in confusion. Then Percy said "You are."

"Course I am. I am apparently in Cloud 9 after all." Matthew mumbled to himself.

"Guys, we have visual contact with the enemy. Up ahead." Corduroy informed.

Less than a mile away, a huge convoy of military vehicles were heading in their direction. From a distance you could see some of the vehicles break off and head towards the other buildings to attack. As Matthew observed the oncoming threat, he grew worried that the huge force would prove too much for the friendly soldiers to handle.

"Are you sure you guys can handle that large a force?". He asked concerned.

"These men know you are their king. They'll go down fighting to make sure you survive." Said Nik.

"Very reassuring, but not my question." Said Matthew.

"I know." Nik replied.

"Corduroy, take Matthew to the entrance of the hanger and stay with him." Percy ordered. "Help the other men defend that position."

"Aye, captain. Come on, Matthew." Corduroy took Matthew's hand and lead him back inside the hanger, but stayed just inside the building.

"Will they be ok?" Asked Matthew.

"Don't worry about them, I've seen Percy lead men into impossible odds and come back fine. And apparently he fought both a God and a titan in a sparring match and won. Trust me."

Quick minute later gunfire rang out around the area. Matthew looked outside and saw that the convoy had stopped right outside the building and had opened fire on the soldiers defending the base. The friendly soldiers returned fire as the enemy soldiers. A few of the enemy soldiers fell to the ground dead, and the rest of them either took cover by the vehicles and trees or stayed in the vehicles and fired large 50 cal machine guns. Soldiers everywhere on both sides were scrambling around the area and it was chaos for a minute. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that the bad guys really wanted the base. Or perhaps Matthew.

While the soldiers outside fought, Matthew looked at the hostile soldiers and noticed that their uniforms were grey and they had insignias on their arms. It was a swastika.

"Wait, they're Nazis!?" Exclaimed Matthew in shock.

"Yes, but not in the way you think." Answered Corduroy. "You have a lot to learn about Cloud 9."

There was a huge explosion and a good amount of the friendly soldiers were immediately blown up or killed by flying debris. The Nazis began to advance towards the hanger now.

"Motherland, fall back! Regroup in the war room!" Corduroy shouted to the few remaining friendly soldiers.

While the remaining Motherland forces retreated back into the building, Corduroy took Matthew's hand and lead him into a room down the hall they came down earlier, but this was much larger than the interrogation room. It was the size of a large classroom, a large table in the center of the room. The table was covered with a map of the surrounding 10 miles of the base and the land around it. Soon after Matthew and Corduroy entered, the remaining soldiers came in and locked the door behind them. There were about 15 soldiers who survived the initial attack from the Nazis, some of the wounded. Matthew was horrified when he saw that one of the survivors had had one of their eyes shot out. Blood slowly trickled out of the now empty socket, yet the soldier seemed unfazed by the horrible injury.

"Who's the biggest ranking officer here?" Corduroy asked the group of men.

"You are, sergeant-major." One of them answered.

"Of course I am. Just my luck." She complained. She took her helmet off to reveal a beautiful fair skinned teenager face and long red hair. Matthew knew who she was immediately.

"Wendy? From Gravity Falls?"

"Yep, born and raised." She said with a smile. Then she leaned forward and whispered in Matthew's ear.

"Hey, you've never been in combat, so it's not your fault, but unless I'm with friends or alone, either call me sergeant, sergeant-major, or Corduroy, 'kay?"

"Oh, o-of course. Sergeant-major." He said slightly embarrassed.

"Ok, here's the plan." Wendy began. "Our first priority is to protect the king at all costs. The base will most likely be captured, so when we get out of here, I order anyone who has the chance to commence Protocol 21. We can't let the New Reich take this base of operations, or they'll have an advantage over us using the Intel held here. Do I make myself clear?"

"Sir yes sir!" Answered all the soldiers in unison.

"What's Protocol 21?" Matthew asked.

"Remotely detonate the base, effectively destroying any possible Intel before the enemy gets a hold of it."

"Oh." He said back.

"Now Matthew here has never had combat experience, so he needs to be protected. Captain Jackson gave him a sidearm so he can learn to protect himself, which means he might need some tips on how to shoot. Be nice to him not just because he's our king, but because he's still a kid and because this is a battle. Good people die on both sides of a war, so make sure you don't come home in a box. And remember-"

Before Wendy could finish the door to the room slammed open and the Nazis stormed in. There was an exchange of fire and the room filled with smoke, lowering the visibility substantially.

Matthew raised his pistol and looked around, trying to decipher who was good and who wasn't through the smoke. He just stood there unsure what to do, until a Nazi soldier appeared right in front of him and tried to grab him. Matthew quickly stepped out of the soldier's reach, took aim and shot the Nazi right in the throat. The man dropped his rifle and fell to his knees, clenching his hands on the gaping hole in his Adams apple, desperately trying to stop the flow of fresh blood leaking out. Then, with one final movement, he reached up and slid his hand down Matthew's face before falling to the floor dead.

Matthew furiously wiped at the blood smeared on his face by the dead Nazi. After he got most of it off, he looked around at the chaos of the small war in the room. Soldier on both sides running around either shooting or engaging in close quarters combat, and there were so many bodies from each side that the dead would actually end up tripping some of the living soldiers.

Matthew suddenly couldn't breathe. Death was everywhere around him, and he just took his first life. The overwhelming guilt and remorse, however, wasn't even close to the feeling that Matthew's first kill wouldn't be his last. That absolutely terrified him.

While the fighting continued the smoke slowly began to disperse, greatly increasing Matthew's vision. He saw a Nazi struggling to reload his shotgun. Almost like he had done so all his life, Matthew all too quickly took aim again and fired 2 rounds in the vulnerable hostile's chest. Faster than his second victim's body could even collapse, Matthew took this time to shoot 2 more unsuspecting Nazis. What scared him even more was that he was already getting used to ending people's lives quickly without hesitation.

"Clear a path! The king needs to get out of this fight!" Wendy shouted over the gunfire.

In response, one of the Motherland soldiers pulled the pin on a grenade and threw it out of the room where the Nazi forces were entering. A second later the hall outside instantly filled with light and the immediate threat was dealt with. The room was cleared with enemies, but the sound of several sets of footsteps indicated that there were more of them to deal with.

"PUSH OUT!" Wendy ordered.

The moment she uttered those words, all the Motherland soldiers rushed out of the room, killing any hostile by any means necessary. Wendy once more took Matthew's hand and lead them out and down the hall with her men. As Matthew and Wendy all dashed down the hall and neutralized any threats with the men's aid, the oncoming storm of Nazis were rapidly cut down by the raging brute force of the Motherland force. Within minutes they were all back outside where they first were when the battle began.

After taking out any surviving enemies, Wendy shouted "Alright, that was lucky as all heck. Now everyone check your ammo and enter any functioning vehicles and drive out. Pick up any Reich weapons and ammunition you can as well. Hurry up, that was only the first wave. Enemy reinforcements will most likely be here soon, so let's get going!"

While the soldiers began scavenging for supplies and loading up trucks, Wendy led Matthew to a truck that was unmanned. She opened the passenger door and was about to have Matthew get in when a sneaky Nazi officer came up and slammed her head into the side of the truck. Wendy pushed him away, drew a huge combat knife and slashed at him, but the soldier just blocked with his arm and kneed her in the guts. Wendy winced and he punched her before throwing her to the ground. Then he bent over and took her knife.

Matthew raised his gun in attempt to help out his protector, but the Nazi officer just slammed the gun to the side so the bullet fired harmlessly into the air. Before Matthew could react the officer grabbed him by the shoulders and headbutted Matthew, causing him to fall down.

Instead of killing Matthew like Matthew thought he'd do, the officer just stood over the boy with a huge grin on his face.

"Well well, look who we have here." The officer said in what sounded like a German accent. "Look who we have here. It's the 'all powerful king of Cloud 9.'" He said, making air quotes.

Several feet away, Wendy coughed and spit out blood on the cement ground, catching the officer's attention. He dropped the knife on the ground by Matthew and took Matthew's gun from the ground, making his way over to Wendy.

He squatted down and said, "So this is the boy you stay loyal to? You've just meet him." He leaned closer. "Look at him. Look him in the eye so you can die knowing you were too weak to save your king. Die knowing you've failed to protect a **child** from your enemy." Then he dug the barrel of the gun into Wendy's head.

"NO!" Screamed Matthew. He leapt up, grabbing the knife and charged at the officer. The officer stood up fast and fired a round off in Matthew's direction, but missing completely. Before the officer could get another round off Matthew tackled him and wrestled him to the ground. Matthew straddled him so he wouldn't get away, angled the knife horizontally against the officer's throat and pushed down.

The soldier began to hold the knife from sinking any further into his throat, but Matthew headbutt him, effectively stunning him. Then Matthew stopped pushing and stood up, seemingly showing the officer mercy. The officer looked up with gratitude in his, thinking he'd be spared.

Then Matthew raised his foot up in the air. Fear returned to the officer's eyes, and Matthew stomped down on the knife.

The blade decapitated the officer's head, and the life quickly left his dead eyes.

Matthew went over to Wendy on the ground and helped you up.

"You okay?" He asked, his violent demeanor quickly vanishing, replaced by one of caring and concern.

"I'm fine, thank you. But are you sure you are?" Said Wendy.

Matthew looked over to the officer's lifeless corpse. We walked over, retrieved the gun off the ground and the knife from what was left of the Nazi's throat.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Here you go." He held our the knife to Wendy.

She shook her head. "Keep it. That's yours now."

Matthew paused for a minute to wipe the blood from the blade on his hoodie. Then he stuck the blade in his belt and put the pistol in his waistband. "Ready?"

"Yeah, let's go."

The 2 of them entered the truck, Wendy taking the wheel while Matthew took the passenger seat. She started the truck and drove off, following the other trucks leaving the base, now overrun with Nazis.

As they rode off to who knows where, Matthew took out his knife and stared at it. He still had a lot of questions, but right now he had am answer for one.

He would protect this world. He would protect **his** world.

He would become the God he'd dreamed he was all those lonely nights.

He would become...

Eskalion.

* * *

 **So there you go guys, the first introduced fandoms. Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque, and Annabeth Chase are from The Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series, Wendy Corduroy from Gravity Falls, and my favorite so far, Steven Universe from Steven Universe. Nik is an OC and won't come up in this story again, but will be again in one of the sequels from this story.**

 **And just as an FYI, Ellie Williams is Ellie Williams from The Last of Us. Justice isn't from a fandom, but isn't exactly an OC. More on that later.**

 **And talk about Matthew going psycho on that officer though. Didn't even plan on that, but I feel like it went pretty well as far as developing his character. Way to go Matthew!**

 **And as far as Percy and Hazel go, they'll be back for a brief time. Don't worry, no character deaths yet!**

 **But anyways, until next time, bye.**


	4. Aftermath pt 1

**Hey everyone sorry it's been so long since I've updated, but here's chapter 4. A little one on one conversation with Wendy, a brief description of Cloud 9's history, and we look at the simpler things in a soldier's life. So yeah here you go.**

 **Enjoy my Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.**

* * *

The truck ride from the fallen base was quiet. Neither Wendy nor Matthew were in a talkative mood at the time, their thoughts still lingering on the event that had just taken place.

Matthew was replaying the events in his head a movie scene stuck on repeat. The Nazis storming into the war room. Smoke enveloping the room, the sounds of screams and agonizing cries swirling around him like a tornado of death and destruction, slowly suffocating him and draining his life force. Seeing the Nazi soldiers, then shooting them without a moment's hesitation, like it has his duty to take lives without remorse or guilt.

Seeing Wendy getting ambushed by a Reich officer and attacking Matthew. Then Matthew charging at the officer and beheading him with one powerful stomp on the knife on his neck, feeling the bone crunch and seeing blood squirting out the decapitated body.

Matthew couldn't believe he was capable of murdering someone. Especially in such a animalistic-like manner. Who had he become? A monster? Or were his actions justifiable?

"Hey dude." Said Wendy, breaking the piercing silence. "You okay?"

"I'm not so sure. And I don't know if I ever will be sure." Matthew replied.

"Well, now you know that war isn't like the video games." She said.

"How can you live like this?" Matthew questioned. "In Gravity Falls, you're so chill and relaxed. What made you so okay to take a life?"

Wendy took a deep breath, then exhaled. Matthew knew what she was about to say was really important.

"First you need to know what this War is about." She began. "Cloud 9 had recently had a new supreme leader, Queen Mary. She's Justice to you. I know because I've met her and worked with her before today. When she became Queen, she began to change things some people disagreed with. For one, she began taxing the super wealthy people of Algor, a large country the size of China of your universe. The lesser king of Algor, Hugo Cortéz, was ticked. He was greedy, as were all the Algorists. They wouldn't pay the taxes."

"Next, a lot of people, including the Algorists, didn't like something about Queen Mary. She was the first person of authority to ever be Involved with the arts of Magic."

"My sister knows magic?" Matthew asked in wonder.

"Yes, many different forms and types of magic. She is one of the most powerful learners ever of a type of magic called Gesturism. It's a magic form based on special hand gestures and chanting an ancient language at the same time. Cloud 9 outlawed anyone involved in magic to be king or queen, or any kind of government position centuries ago. So she upset a lot of people from a bunch of other countries in Cloud 9. Batistan, Roloaski, Dunivin and Norroway. Eventually there was a bunch of political and social unrest. And then there were a bunch of little things happening everywhere, and viola. Now you've got a huge world war that now involves many different countries and territories that were sucked into the conflict."

"In the TV show I'm on in your universe, Gravity Falls is in Oregon. Here, there are many different countries and states that are far different from your universe's makeup. Gravity Falls is in a state called Entourage. Entourage is a state in a large country called Skyrim, the Cloud 9 equivalent of America. But much bigger."

"Hugo Cortéz is King of Algor, and since he started the war, he formed a group called the New Reich, a nod to the German 3rd Reich. The countries I named off earlier joined the New Reich and began to fight together."

"I am a soldier for the Motherland, the newly official name of Skyrim and the countries who sided with us before and during the war. I was one of the only volunteers from Gravity Falls to joined the armed forces. A few from Gravity Falls joined the scientific Motherland projects to help the war effort."

"The worst part about this War is that just about everyone in the Motherland has to fight or have their homes conquered. If The New Reich wins the war, a harsh occupation awaits all the Motherland countries. At this point in the war, it's fight or be conquered. That's just how the world is now."

"Wow. That's a lot to take in." Matthew said once she finished.

"There's one more thing you should know. The most important about Cloud 9."

"Oh boy, here we go." Matthew groaned. "Lay it on me."

"I have something called C9 Awareness. C9 means Cloud 9. C9 Awareness is something only a certain number of people in Cloud 9 have. It's the ability to know that Cloud 9 is just a story."

"What does that mean?" Asked Matthew, super confused.

Wendy bit her lip. " Mostly everyone in Cloud 9 think they're real. They don't know that most of themselves are just characters from books and movies and video games. They believe they're actual people. People with C9 Awareness know they are just figments of imagination from people living in your universe, The Real World. I know I'm from a TV show. It's hard to live with the gift of C9 Awareness, but people like me accept the burden of this knowledge. Our mission is to make sure those without C9 Awareness never find out the truth. It could mean the end of our world as we know it. I have it, the Queen has it, and a lot of other people have it."

"Well." Matthew said. "Before you and your squad found me, Ellie and Justice has me tied to that chair. They left when the attack began, but someone came in and freed me afterwards. He said we came to me to prove Cloud 9 was were I was. I recognized him and that's when I knew I was in Cloud 9."

"Who was it? I might know them." Said Wendy.

"Steven Quartz Universe." He answered.

"Holy shit, Steven Universe!? He's badass for so many reasons. If you meet him when he's not in combat, you two should totally hang."

"Sounds fun. And thank you for telling me all this. There's something I want to say, though. You never answered my question. Why is it okay for you to just kill someone in battle?"

"No sane person will ever tell you killing someone is easy. No matter how much you try to forget, every person to kill haunts you for the rest of your life. They haunt you when you're alone, when you're in the dark, even in your dreams. They never leave. But the feeling of killing someone eases over time. The guilt torments me, but I don't let it consume me. I am still able to live a normal life. I don't get post traumatic stress usually, and I still hang out with all my friends. So yeah, that's my experience with it."

Matthew didn't ask any further questions that were so personal. He silently cursed at himself for even asking a question like that, making her relive her nightmares like that was just cruel.

"But in the few months of fighting I've seen, never have I witnessed something close to the caliber of what you did to that officer back there. That was brutal."

Matthew didn't want to talk about that, so he remained silent.

"Thank you for saving my life, King Eskalion."

"You're welcome." Was all he said.

The truck returned to its previous state of uneasy silence. Then a faint explosion could be shared from behind them. Matthew looked back and saw that the base had exploded. Guess they went with Protocol 21 after all.

"Don't worry, Matthew. We're going to a safe place for you to stay." Wendy informed.

"I want to fight." Matthew said.

Wendy sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't say that. But if that's the case, you need to come stay with me. Today was my last day stationed at that base,so I get to go home for a while."

"How far is Entourage from here?" Matthew wondered.

"Right now we're in San Guatama. Entourage is a day's journey by plane. I just need to go to a nearby embassy, drop off my combat gear and leave. I'll have you come with me there too. Just to show that the king is alive and well."

"Okay then. Is it cool if I fall asleep for a bit?"

"Go ahead dude. You deserve it. When we get to the embassy, I'll wake you up so we can get situated, then afterwards we can get some grub before heading to Entourage. Good night dude. Sleep well."

Matthew layed his head down on the truck door and went to sleep, even though it was only around 2 'o'clock. As he eased into a deep sleep, his last thought was how his family was doing, unaware that he has dead center in a war zone.

* * *

"Matthew, wake up." Said Wendy, shaking his shoulder.

Matthew opened his eyes and sat up quickly, thinking that something bad had happened.

"What!? What's happening!?" He rambled.

"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down dude." Wendy reassured. "Nothing's wrong. We're just at the embassy."

"Oh." He said, calming down. "Sorry. Thought you were in danger."

"Don't sweat it dude. It is nice to know that you were concerned for me though."

The two of them opened the truck doors and got out, closing the doors behind them. Matthew looked up at the sky. It was still light out when he fell asleep. Now it was nighttime. He wondered how long he had slept.

The embassy was the size of a school, made of bricks and had three stories. The embassy kind of reminded Matthew of an office building of sorts, but what made it look odd were a few guard towers on every corner of the building. Armed soldiers stood in every tower and they looked like they were on high alert. They must have heard about that base's destruction.

"What exactly do you have to do here?" Asked Matthew.

"I need to drop off my uniform and rifle. I also keep my belongings here since I come here so often. Then I'll put on my civilian clothes and we can go. But while we're here you need to come in so we can show the head officer here that you're alive. They'll send a message back to Motherland HQ and then we're free to do whatever."

Matthew followed Wendy inside and he discovered his idea of the embassy looking like an office building wasn't off. There was a front desk at the end of the room and everywhere else there were people sitting at desks and typing away on computers or pouring over papers scattered across various desks. At every doorway were two armed Motherland soldiers, the only evidence of the place being a government building.

Wendy approached the front desk and spoke to the lady there. "Hey Karen."

"Hi Wendy! I heard that Fort Dane was destroyed. Thought you were dead. I was so glad. But I see you're alive and well. Good for you."

"Not dealing with your BS right now, Karen. I'm just trying to get home." Wendy said frustratingly.

"Oh fine. Just turn in your equipment and you can leave. I'll record that you're taking your leave. A month without your douchebagery and sarcasm. Wonder how I'll survive." Karen said snootily.

"Go to Help Karen." Wendy shot. "And Fyi I did almost die, but I was saved by this kid right here." She gestured towards Matthew.

"Now why would I care?" Karen said, clearly disinterested.

"Because he's your king. Karen, meet Matthew Williams, aka King Eskalion of Cloud 9."

Karen froze and a face of shock appeared.

The whole business heard Wendy as well. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and the room fell silent, all eyes on Matthew.

Then each and every person there, including Wendy and the soldiers, one else and bowed to their king.

After a few seconds of having the people kneel, Matthew said "You may rise."

The crowd followed their order and went back to their duties on the computers or papers.

"I deeply apologize for my behavior, Wendy. I had no idea you were with the king." Karen apologized.

"Well, it is quite a turn of events to have you actually not be an asshole towards me." Wendy remarked with a smile. "So how about you treat me with respect from now on, or do you want me to have you imprisoned?"

Karen turned pale and clicked a few keys on her computer. "Just go drop off your uniform and rifle, then you can leave."

"Good. Come, follow me Matthew." Said Wendy.

Matthew started to follow Wendy, but hang back and spoke to Karen.

"Hey Karen." He said.

"Yes, m'lord?" She asked nervously.

"If I ever see you disrespect Wendy again, or anyone for that matter, I will personally lock you in a glass box filled with water, salt, and razor blades, and have you die in horrible agony. Do I make myself clear?"

"O-o-of course m'lord." She stuttered.

Feeling Matthew had made his empty promise seem like truth, he left the front desk and caught up with Wendy, following her into a mini armory with stacks and racks of weapons everywhere in the bathroom-sized room. She set her assault rifle on one of the racks and set the ammo and explosives in a different area.

"Ok, now I just need to drop off my uniform." She said. "Come with me to the locker room so you can get acquainted with everything for when you join the Motherland Armed Services."

Down a small hallway was a door that was labeled **locker room.** They went inside to find the place empty of people but lined with hundreds of lockers, big and small. Wendy looked for her own locker and opened it when she found it.

"When you get assigned a locker," Wendy began." You put your civilian clothes inside and take out your military uniform. Then when you're on leave, or when you get to take a break from device, you switch out your clothes and go home."

"Ok, I got it." Matthew spoke.

Wendy opened her locker and took out her regular clothes.

"As you can tell," She said, holding up a green plaid long sleeved shirt. "I like to wear plaid a lot "

"Yeah, you wore that same plaid shirt in just about every episode of Gravity Falls." Matthew responded.

Wendy set her shirt down. Then she unbuttoned her uniform shirt and took it off, revealing her young teenage breasts covered by a white bra.

"Whoa, a little warning would be nice next time." Matthew said, turning around as to not watch Wendy change.

"Oh yeah, sorry." She apologized. "I'm just so used to changing around people when I'm in a locker room. For some reason I thought I was talking to one of my girlfriends, since there are never boys in here. This is the girl's locker room."

"Nah, I get it." Matthew reassured, still turned around. "I'm always talking to people in the locker room in my phys ed class at school. You know, back in my universe."

"Plus I have a feeling you won't want to be around another girl stripping down after the incident with Ellie." Wendy remarked, Matthew clearly hearing the smile in her voice.

"You knew about that?" Matthew asked embarrassingly, suddenly feeling flustered.

"Yeah, in fact I was there when we were discussing the best way to extract you from The Real World."

"Well, that was my first time seeing and touching a girl's boobs. How could I resist?" He asked, cheeks burning.

"And how was it? Did you think you were about to lose your virginity right then?"

"Can we please not talk about this? Please Wendy?" Matthew pleaded.

Wendy laughed in response, but stopped per his demands.

The two remained silent while Wendy continued to get dressed. While Wendy did so, Matthew couldn't help the tightening in his loins from returning. His mind wandered to images of Wendy's nude body.

 _Why can't I control my lust for every girl I see?_ He silently asked himself.

"You can turn around now dude, I'm mostly clothed already." Wendy said from behind him.

Matthew turned and faced her, quietly praying to himself that she wouldn't notice the bulge in his jeans by his raging erection.

She had light blue jeans on, Brown work boots, and a lumberjack hat on. She was still only covered by her bra from the waist up, but she was zipping up her pants. Then she put on a white undershirt and then put on her plaid shirt, slowly buttoning it up.

"Ready to go?" She asked when she finished.

The duo left the embassy, and to their surprise, found Justice outside waiting by the door.

"Sergeant-major Corduroy." She said. "Who gave you authority to drag the king on your errands around San Guatama?"

"U-uh, no one did, your highness." Wendy answered, lowering her head in shame. "Forgive me, m'lady."

"No, don't get on her Justice." Matthew jumped in to Wendy's defense. "I chose to go with her. If you have a problem, deal with me."

"I already have my own problems, Matthew." Justice sneered. "And you're one of them. You're the king of Cloud 9. You need to go live in the palace, to help lead the Motherland forces into battle against the Reich, and tend to you responsibilities as ruler, and-"

"No, you listen to me, sister." Matthew shot back, anger rising in his body after all the trouble she's put him through him since he was taken to this world.

"You kidnapped me from my world. That was your first mess up. Then, you just randomly made me king of a world I knew nothing about until Wendy explained everything to me. Strike number 2. Then, you just left me at a base that was being attacked without even coming back for me and just leaving me tied to a chair. What kind of monster does all that to her brother, and then treats me the way you are now. Who do you think you are?"

"Matthew, I'm sorry for all that, really I am. But there are forces beyond your control at play right now, and have been in play far longer than you wrote your stories. Please Matthew, just come with me to the palace. I'll explain all you need to know for now, and then you get to live in a huge palace and have anything you'd ever wish for. Just please, come with me." Justice begged, eyes misting up.

Matthew thought about her words for a minute. He looked at Justice, then at Wendy, having a silent debate in his mind.

 _Justice did bring me to the place of my dreams._

 _But she kidnapped her, and imprisoned me, and left be for dead._

 _Wendy is pretty nice. She helped me understand a good amount of Cloud 9 and didn't treat me wrong in any way. And I want to see how a soldier lives in their spare time._

 _I am a king. I need to step up and take responsibility for my new kingdom._

 _Wendy is the only one I can trust right now. I want to be with her._

 _What about Ellie?_

Matthew was so conflicted over what he should do. He had no idea how to run a kingdom and he knew close to nothing about politics. He was lost.

"I'll come with you." Wendy offered.

Matthew tilted his head in confusion. "But you're on leave. You need to be with your friends and family back in Gravity Falls."

"Dude, I have a month of leave. I'm sure Gravity Falls can live without me for another day or so."

He thought it over for a second, then he turned to Justice.

"Okay. I'll go with you. But only if Wendy can come."

"Fine." Justice groaned, crossing her arms. "Let's go. I called a limousine to pick us up before I got here."

"How'd you know I'd comply?" He asked.

"Like I said, forces beyond your control are at play." She answered.

After a few minutes of waiting outside the embassy, a jet black limousine pulled up to the curb.

"Hello, Queen Mary." Said the chauffeur, wearing a black tuxedo. "I'm here to take you three to the palace."

"Thank you, Bill." Justice said to him.

Matthew, Wendy, and Justice entered the limo by the very back and sat down in the luxurious vehicle. The driver started up the limo and they drove off to the palace.

"How on Earth were you able to afford a limousine?" Matthew asked.

"I'm the Queen." Justice replied. "You're filthy rich if you're royalty. But you already knew that, being the bookworm you are."

"Does that mean I'm rich?"

"Yes. Very rich indeed. So rich, in fact, that you make Bruce Wayne and his company look like a low budget Oliver Stone movie."

"So I can have anything I want basically?" He asked.

"Sure. What do you want?" Asked Justice.

"A place to live that's as far away from you as possible." He answered coldly.

The limo remained quiet for a while, the air lingering with the heavy distrust Matthew had for his older sister. Wendy didn't say anything as she started out of the window, clearly something on her mind. Matthew kinda of wanted to ask her what she was thinking about, but decided against it, having Justice sitting right next to them. In order to calm his nerves and cool down a bit be took out his phone and ear buds once again and after putting them on he searched his music playlist for a song. He put one on called "When Doves cry" by Prince. He didn't listen to Prince until he died, but when he did die Matthew started listening to some of Prince's music. "When Doves cry" was one of Matthew's favorite songs from Prince.

 _Maybe you're just like my mother_

 _She's never satisfied_

 _Why do we scream at each other_

 _This is what it sounds like, when doves cry_

Matthew just listened to his music the whole ride to the Palace, which took a solid few hours. By the time they had gotten there, the sun was just rising up and peeking over the horizon. As the limousine rode closer to the entrance, Matthew couldn't help but let out a "whoa" to himself as he gazed upon the majestic palace.

The palace's size was massive, it was the size of 8 football stadiums and was about the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It resembled a castle out of a Disney movie, with those really pretty colored Windows, tiles covering the walls and making a checkered pattern. There were even taller towers surrounding the palace that appeared to serve as the palace's security, lines with all sorts of lethal-looking cannons and machine guns. The rest of the palace looked like whatever else a palace has, but with a modern feeling towards it that Matthew couldn't quite put his finger on. One the roof were 2 really long steples, and between them was a white flag with the Motherland symbol on it. The symbol was a large circle divided into four halves like a pizza, but instead of straight cut lines they were squiggly lines.

The upper left hand corner had a smaller black circle within it, and the circle had been crossed out by a black "X" and below the circle said MONSTERS. Matthew recognized the symbol immediately and unwillingly let out a shiver, the image representing something that he knew well and that scared him a good bit.

The upper right hand corner simply had an image of a black Human handprint, with the word MEN written below the handprint.

The lower left hand corner had what looked like the picture of a simply drawn gem of sorts, colored pink, with the word GEMS written below.

The lower right hand corner showed the image of 5 long black scratches from what looked like a wolf's claws. Below this image was the word CREATURES.

In the dead center of the squiggly line cross was a huge "&" symbol that had a piece of itself in every corner. Then above the entire circle of symbols was simply the word OF.

Matthew finally realized the banner's message.

"Of MONSTERS and MEN, GEMS and CREATURES." He said aloud, taking and putting away his ear buds.

"Yep. The Motherland insignia. Stamped on every government document, stitched onto every soldier's uniform, and written by our founding fathers, who were the first official Cloud 9 citizens." Justice said, clearly enjoying teaching her brother.

"And this is your new home, Matthew." She added.

"Wait, really!?" Matthew said pure disbelief. "This is my home?"

"No." Justice answered, taking his hand. "It's **our** home. Welcome home, brother. We've been waiting for years for you to claim your throne."

"I don't believe this!" Matthew shouted. "Wendy, please tell me she's yanking my leg."

"Nope. Everything she's saying is true." Wendy said with a smile.

Matthew turned his attention back to his jaw-dropping new home. Something inside him stirred. Something that he hadn't felt in all of forever. It was a flicker of hope. Hope that things would finally start going in Matthew's direction for once in his life. Here he was, in a magical place he created, the king of his own country, and he gets to life in the perfect castle fit for the king he was.

Matthew took it all in, and silently said to himself...

I'm home. I'm finally home.

And I'm never leaving again.

* * *

 **I know, it's kind of boring, but I just had to explain some things. Matthew seems happy, but for how much longer? DUNDUNDUN.**

 **Oh and also, I need some ideas. The Motherland's government will be a republican-monarchy-oligarchy mix. There's going to be a Senate of oligarchy rulers that oversee all of the Motherland, and both Matthew and Mary are going to be members. I want the other members to have conflicts with one another, so give me a few political parties i should make them. Even if you make it up, I'll find a way to make it fit into the storyline.**

 **And if you guys have any other ideas you'd like to share with me, either use the contact info on my profile, or PM me.**

 **See you guys later! Peace!**


	5. The Senate

**During the elevator ride to The Meeting Place, listen to the song that Matthew, Justice and Wendy sing.**

The minute they stepped through the elegant french doors of the Palace's main entrance, Matthew knew that he would enjoy living there.

The first room they were in when they entered had dozens of spiral staircases that seemed to stretch on up forever. Then next to each staircase were elevators for guests who were tired of walking up and down the never ending stairs. Diamond chandeliers hung in neat rows from the very high ceilings and fancy looking lamps lined the walls. On every wall next to the elevators and staircases were long halls stretching deep into the Palace.

"Hundreds of bedrooms with their own bathrooms, 87 kitchens, 26 school sized cafeterias, hundreds more of stores and entertainment centers, office spaces for government officials living here, 4 separate gun ranges, Indoor pools, arenas for sports and combat training, private movie theaters, bowling alley, and a huge climbing rock wall." Justice listed out aloud.

"There are other people living here?" Matthew asked, wondering how big the place was to house everything she just said and hundreds of people at the same time.

"Oh yeah, tons of people. High ranking officials, ambassadors, special government agents, countless employees like butlers and chefs, and maids as well. Then we have at least several dozens of military units guarding and watching over this place, and I live here as well."

"Wow, this is just...so unbelievably awesome!" Matthew said with childlike wonder. "What should we do first?"

"Whoa, slow down cowboy." Justice advised. "We have to attend to a few things first. You need to meet the Grand Senate first. With you and I being royalty, we are members of the Senate as well. You need to sign a few things so you can officially become king of The Motherland. Plus there will be some people you need to meet, such as the Senate and...others, who are important to our cause."

"Aww man!" Matthew half heartedly complained. "Alright, let's go meet some people. But I want you to be with me, you know how I am around people I've never met."

"I'll be right there with you, don't worry." Justice smiled.

"Wait, can Wendy come, too?" He asked, still kind of uneasy from being around his sister, whom he still didn't trust very much.

"Well, we don't usually don't allow lower ranking soldiers enter the Meeting Place, where the Senate has it's meetings, but we'll make an exception for her."

"Thank you so much, m'lady." Wendy said with a bow. "I've never been inside the Meeting Place before, even when I was stationed here."

"You've been here before?" Questioned Matthew.

"Yep, I was stationed here for a few months last year. Since things were really boring I got to invite some of my friends from Gravity Falls and we basically just screwed around and enjoyed the many entertaining things to do here. Best time I've had in my life."

"Thought you said you've only seen a few months of fighting." Matthew said, remembering their conversation from leaving the base.

"I enlisted about a year ago, but I've only been on the front lines for a few months." Wendy explained.

"Come on guys, it would be rude to keep our guests waiting any longer." Justice insisted. "They're very eager to meet you, Matt."

Matthew and Wendy followed Justice to one of the nearest elevators and hit the button. A few seconds later the doors opened and the three on them filed into the elevator. Justice hit a button labeled **Meeting Place** , then the doors closed and they went up.

While they stood in silence, a song came on over the elevator speakers. Matthew recognized it as a song he liked, "The Sounds of Silence" remake by Disturbed. He could then hear Wendy very quietly singing the words to herself. Without saying anything to her, he also began to sing.

 **"Hello darkness, my old friend**

 **I've come to talk with you again**

 **Because a vision softly creeping**

 **Left its seed while I was sleeping**

 **And the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains**

 **Within the sound of silence."**

Wendy looked over at Matthew when he joined in on the song, then flashed him a warm smile and they continued singing.

While they sang, Matthew thought back to his conversation with Wendy about killing people during a war. She said the ones she's killed haunt her when she's in the dark, alone, or in her dreams. The lyrics that Matthew knew by heart that he always enjoyed suddenly made him think of the men he himself murdered at Fort Dane.

 **"In restless dreams I walked alone**

 **Narrow streets of cobblestone**

 **'Neath the halo of a street lamp**

 **I turned my collar to the cold and damp**

 **When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light**

 **That spilt the night**

 **And touched the sound of silence"**

The lyrics painted images in his head. Walking down by himself on a cobblestone street in Victorian England, a lone streetlight being his only light in the deep and inky darkness. A teenage girl in a red dress approaches him and begins asking him for directions. Since he was alone with the girl, he took the form of a cold and heartless murderer. The flash of light was Matthew pulling a gun and shooting the girl point blank in the heart, the flash from the barrel illuminating the darkness around them. Then after the woman's final breaths cease, the dark night is now accompanied by a piercingly loud and unbearable silence. Unbeknownst to Matthew, in the elevator away from these images, Justice also began singing, the song triggering terrifying images as well.

 **"And in the naked light I saw**

 **Ten thousand people, maybe more**

 **People talking without speaking**

 **People hearing without listening**

 **People writing songs that voices never share**

 **And no one dare**

 **Disturb the sound of silence"**

The ten thousand people were spirits that began to appear around Matthew and the lone streetlight, accompanied by the freshly killed woman's spirit as well. They were all moving their mouths, yet no words came out. The spirits and Matthew couldn't hear, so they couldn't listen to themselves and Matthew couldn't communicate with the phantom gathering. The reason the ghosts couldn't speak is because they were Matthew's other victims, people that he had murdered, like the girl. Matthew has snuffed out their voices, their music, and the songs they'd sing to their loved ones when they were alive still. Since Matthew was alive, he could talk, but he didn't want to disturb the peaceful but equally unnerving silence in fear that the ghosts would kill him for his sins.

"' **Fools" said I, you do not know**

 **Silence like a cancer grows**

 **Hear my words that I might reach you**

 **Take my arms that I might reach you**

 **But my words like silent raindrops fell**

 **And echoed in the wells of silence"**

Silence grows. Many more ghosts began appearing all over the darkness, showing that Matthew's killing spree would continue. Finally, after years of murder and evading arrest, he developed cancer that would quickly kill him. In his finals moments under the streetlight, Matthew felt remorse and guilt for his crimes, and he began profusely apologising and begging the phantoms for forgiveness. They did not hear, for it had begun to storm and so Matthew's pleas were lost in the droning sound of the sudden storm.

" **And the people bowed and prayed**

 **To the neon god they made**

 **And the sign flashed out its warning**

 **In the words that it was forming"**

The ghosts all bowed, with the exception of a lone ghost, the girl Matthew just murdered. On her the sound of the storm, as clear as day, she spoke to him.

 **"The sign said "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls**

 **And tenement halls"**

She spoke of finding the spirit army **'** s forgiveness many centuries into the future **,** when subways had been invented everywhere **.** The spirits **'** words of forgiveness would be hidden within the graffiti spray-painted by all the aspiring artists of the world **,** who were in fact descendants of the ghosts. Only after centuries of guilt and remorse will Matthew have paid his debt to his victims and be forgiven.

 **"It whisper'd in the sounds of silence."**

The song came to an end, as did the story displayed in Matthew's mind. When he snapped out of his daydream, he found that he was silently crying. Tears flooded his eyes and stained his cheek. All these emotions from killing the Nazis from earlier, to the murder of the innocent girl he met, just charged at him and hit him with the force of a bullet train. The girl but even closer to home, partly because he knew her...

And partly because she was his very first victim. Not the Nazis. Her. The Nazis were acts of self defense, things you do in a war. Things you have no choice but to do.

He made the choice. He **murdered her in cold blood.**

 **And she was haunting him again.**

"Matthew, what's wrong?" Justice asked in a concerned tone.

"Nothing." He lied, wiping his eyes dry and straightening up. "I'm fine. Eager to meet this Senate I'm supposedly a member of."

The elevator dinged and came to a halt.

"Here we are." Justice said. "The Meeting Place."

The elevator doors slid open and they stepped out.

The Meeting Place was about the size of a very large classroom, except circular.. In the center of the room were 7 chairs that looked like thrones sitting in a large circle. The rest of the room was filled with rows of seats divided by waist high walls that each had different colors, like a pie chart, that ran along the circle walls and surrounded the thrones in the center. People in all the chairs, except for the thrones, were filled with people right to the walls dividing the crowd. All do them were in business attire, and they all looked like they worked for the government. Matthew felt underdressed for the occasion, and he could tell Wendy was as well, but Justice was calm and collective as if she had attended these meetings before.

While the crowd milled about and talked to each other, 5 separate people stood by the thrones.

"Come Matthew, let me Introduce you to the senators."Justice said. "Wendy, go take a seat with whatever party you belong to."

"Alright, Independents all day!" Wendy said passionately and went off to find her seat.

Matthew followed Justice up to the 5 senators by the thrones. As they drew closer the senators all turned and faced them.

"Senators." Justice began. "I'd like you to meet my brother Matthew. Matthew is the newfound king of The Motherland."

"Um, hi." Matthew said meekly.

One of the senators held out his hand and smiled. He wore a black business suit, blue tie, thick framed glasses and brown dress shoes. He had fair skin, was young, had short brown hair and blue eyes. Matthew also took notice of a strange scar on his temple that long been healed.

"Thomas Clay. Good to meet you, Matthew." He said with a slight southern accent.

Matthew shook his hand and before he could say anything back another senator came up. He was a young black man with brown eyes short curly brown hair. No strange scars on him though.

"Name's Samuel Slater." He said in a Michigan sounding accent. "Like the famous industrialist, but not as tech savvy."

"Peter Quinton." Said a very fair skinned man who looked like he was middle aged. Matthew could immediately tell Peter was grouchy and stingy. Peter reminded Matthew of Donald Trump. He even looked rich. Great.

( **It** **was** **really** **hard** **trying** **to** **make** **descriptions** **for** **all** **the** **senators** , **so** **just** **use** **your** **imagination**.)

The other senators were Max Murphy, John Van Pelt, and Michelle Olson.

After Matthew had been introduced to all the senators, Justice said in a loud voice, "All those in the Meeting Place, take your seats."

The crowd went silent and took their seats. Then the senators sat down in the thrones. Matthew sat in one of them once he saw Justice do the same.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I called this meeting to officially make my brother Matthew here as our rightful king." Justice announced.

Some of the parties cheered, while the others stayed silent. Wendy and her party were one that cheered, so Matthew thought that was a good thing.

"Well Matthew." Spoke up Samuel. "All you have to do is sign a document and you'll be king."

Samuel reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen and paper. Matthew took them from him and read over the document. After he read it and agreed to stay within the legal guidelines of being king, he signed at the bottom and returned the pen and paper to Samuel.

"Thank you, Senator Slater." Justice said with gratitude.

"So that's it? I now rule over the Motherland?" Asked Matthew, surprised that that was all he had to do.

"Yeah that's about it." Answered Justice. "We don't do things like you do in the Real World. A lot of things are different, but you'll catch on over the years."

"Well, if I'm king, then why do we have a Senate? That's not how a monarchy works." Matthew said.

"This is the Senate for The Motherland." Said Michelle. "We're for any conflict, political or otherwise, that arises for the Motherland. You can run your country Skyrim however, but we have a war to win, and we're doing it together."

"You ever see one of those movies about the apocalypse or a huge terrorist threat affected different countries?" Asked Samuel.

Matthew nodded.

"Those people you see on all those Tv's are the world leaders, and they get together to deal with international problems like those. That's what we are for The Motherland basically."

"Ohhh, I get it now." Matthew said in understanding. "So, now what?"

"Well, since you're here, I want to congratulate you on your first battle." Thomas said. "You had no combat training whatsoever, yet you held ground and survived the defeat. After you get proper training, you can do even better. The War is happening on everyone's soil, both Motherland's and The New Reich's. We want you to be ready. For the offense on the front lines, and for the defense back here at home. Will you do that?"

Before Matthew had answered, Justice answered for him.

"Yes he will. He has proved his worth at Fort Dane and he will be a great leader." She said.

"Good good." Said Thomas.

"So is there anything anyone has to say before we conclude the meeting?" Asked Justice.

The Meeting Place stayed silent in response.

"Then this Meeting is adjourned."

Matthew saw everyone in their party get up and file out of the place. The Senators also left the room. Wendy came over to Matthew and Justice, leaving the three of them alone in the Meeting Place.

"So how does it feel to be king?" Wendy asked with a smile on her face.

Matthew thought for a minute, then said, "Empowered."

"Sounds about right." Justice confirmed.

"So now what?" He asked.

"Well, we need to assign you to a military unit so you can officially be a member of the armed forces, but first you need to know something." Justice when on.

She raised her hands up and made some sort of weird gestures, mind of resembling Chinese symbols. Then to Matthew's surprise, her hands started to flow a white light color.

"That's Gesturism." Wendy whispered.

"Reveal hidden room!" Justice said loudly.

The minute she finished those words, their environment changed so drastically that Matthew actually jumped back and yelped with fear.

The Meeting Place had vanished. The trio now stood in a completely white room that almost looked like it was glowing. There were several different thrones on one end of the room against the wall, and people sat there. Matthew knew that these were no ordinary people though, just by looking at them. He could literally feel power radiating off them.

"A few minutes ago you meet the Grand Senate of the Motherland." Justice spoke. "Now you get to meet those in charge of all of Cloud 9."

Justice walked over to the beings, and Matthew and Wendy followed suite.

There were 5 people in total, 2 women, 2 men, and surprisingly a little girl.

"Is this the boy you spoke of, Mary?" One of the women asked.

"Yes. This is Eskalion." His sister answered.

"Come forth, boy." The woman said.

Matthew complied and stepped in front of the woman, shifting on his feet and showing that he was nervous.

"You claim to be a God. A cosmic being. In your stories, yes?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am, that's true." He replied quietly.

"You stand before 5 Gods. Can you guess what I am the goddess of?"

"No." He said.

"My name is Elizabeth DeWitt, and we all have C9 Awareness. I am from a video game called Bioshock Infinite, which you are aware of. In the game I can access gateways to other worlds via tears in reality. So tell me what goddess I am.

"Goddess of the Multiverse?" He tried.

"Specifically Cloud 9's Multiverse, but yes."

"Does that mean you are the only who can see the Multiverse?" Matthew asked.

"Others can. I'm just the most prominent." Elizabeth replied.

While they were talking the little girl walked over and tugged on Matthew's pant leg.

"And who are you?" He said in a cute voice.

"Don't talk to me like a child, boy. I can turn you into dust if I wanted to. Or a zygote. I like doing that."

"That's Lydia, the goddess of Youth. Can be any age she wants, but she's actually thousands of years old." Justice explained.

"I'm Mortis. Rigor Mortis." One man said. "God of Death. Don't fuck with me."

"And I am Bob. The physical embodiment of all Magic." The Last man said.

"These are the Cosmic beings of Cloud 9." Justice said.

"Well, some of us anyway. There's a bunch more of us, but they're not...like us, exactly." Said Elizabeth.

"Ok, if we don't leave right now, the world will end, so let's go!" Said Justice.

Before Matthew could ask why she said that she snapped her fingers and they were gone.

 **Hey Everyone, sorry I haven't been updating. I've come to a stop for this story because I don't know how I want to structure it and because I've been working on two other stories, one is finished and the other is almost finished. To be honest I probably won't update again for a while. I just don't know how to do this story. The passion is gone, so I may just stop altogether. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.**

 **Take care everyone and I'll let you know what I plan to do with this story.**


	6. Preparations

**I know I know, it's been AGES since I've updated, and I apologize for that. I could give you a huge list of excuses and reasons why I haven't been fulfilling my duties as an author but I won't do that, it seems disrespectful. But regardless I hope you enjoy this chapter and sorry if it's boring, things will be picking up soon.**

 **So go on guys and enjoy my beautiful dark twisted fantasy.**

* * *

"Holy crap!" Matthew exclaimed as he found himself in another location within an instant. "I really need to get used to that."

"You'll become accustomed to it over time the more you do it," Justice said.

"It still gets me sometimes," Wendy added.

"So where are we now?" Asked Matthew, looking around at his new surroundings.

"This is the central war room in the palace," Justice answered.

The three of them had teleported to a room that was the size of a large school library, where people were either milling about around the place doing various things like talking to people through microphones on headsets or handing papers and reports to other workers, doing things on high tech-looking computers, or pouring over maps on one of several tables and desks scattered around the room. Some of the people looked like office workers, while others looked like soldiers. Matthew swore he saw a couple of generals around the room as well.

"Why did you take us here?" Matthew asked.

"You said you wanted to fight for us, right? This is the place to start. You should meet someone here, they would know where you put you."

Matthew and Wendy followed Justice across the room through all the commotion while the people went about their business without paying the three any attention. Justice walked up to a group of officers who were talking to each other while pointing at a large map. Strangely enough, among the officers was a teenage boy around Matthew's age conversing with them as if he was also part of the discussion. Then to Matthew's surprise Justice caught the attention of the boy and went over to him. The officers went back to talking, but the boy left the group and came over to Justice, Wendy and Matthew. He had fair skin, short brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a navy blue hoodie and khaki shorts, combat boots and had some strange metal strands all up his arms and legs. They seemed to literally be a pet of the boy's muscles and joints, like some sort of cyborg. The metal on his arms connected to his black-gloved hands and they also looked mechanical. The entire contraption looked like an exo suit from Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, and Matthew took notice of a sidearm holstered around the boy's waist. This person looked like a cybernetic soldier of sorts, which kind of unnerved Matthew.

"Queen Mary," the boy said. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Lord Kamulus, good to see you again," said Justice.

"Who are these two?" Kamulus asked, looking at Wendy and Matthew.

"This is Sergeant-Major Wendy Corduroy and Matthew Williams. Matthew here is our new king. He was just sworn in by the Senate."

"Really?" Kamulus looked Matthew up and down as if he were observing an object he just found. "You don't look like much. You an emo?"

"Well, I write poetry and I'm introverted," Matthew answered, not knowing if he was being insulted or not. "Does that make me emo?"

"Definitely, but that's not much of a problem. Emos tend to be great soldiers. Welcome aboard." He held out his hand and Matthew nervously shook it, being wary of the boy's cybernetic gear.

"So you want to be a soldier for the Motherland, yes?" Camulus asked.

"I do indeed," Matthew said, trying not to stare at the boy's mechanical limb enhancements. "If I'm going to rule over a country and she's being attacked, I want to be there to protect her."

"I like the heart you have. And by the looks of it, you've already seen combat," Kamulus observed, pointing at Matthew's blood stained Star Wars hoodie.

"Yeah, Matthew and I were at Fort Dane when it was attacked. We pushed them back and most of my men made it out just fine, but the Reich took the base. We were forced to go to protocol 21," Wendy explained.

"I heard that we lost Fort Dane, but I didn't hear any of the details. Good to hear that most of you and your men got out. And great job getting the king out of there," Kamulus said.

Wendy saluted him. "Just doing my job sir. For the Motherland!"

Kamulus let out a hearty laugh. "That's the spirit I like to see!" He turned to Matthew again. "How many Reichsmen did you kill?"

Even though he didn't want to recount the events from that day, Matthew recalled how many soldiers he killed. "Six. Five of them I shot, the last one I decapitated with a combat knife."

"Damn kid, you got guts," the young officer complimented. "But that was just your first battle. Many more are ahead of us. Unfortunately this war has no end in sight, so you won't have the proper training you'll need. I'm sure Queen Mary can use some of her magic to help you out. Or maybe one of her many connections she has within the Motherland."

"Don't worry Kamulus," Justice assured. "He's going to be a great soldier."

"I've seen what he can do, believe me when I say he's got heart," Wendy added.

"I trust both of you. Don't disappoint me," Kamulus said in a serious tone.

"I won't, I promise. Whatever it takes," Matthew said.

"Okay, now that we've gotten through the pleasantries, what's our next move?" Asked Wendy.

"Good question, come take a look at this." Kamulus gestured towards the map the officers were observing. The four of them stepped forward to get a closer look, but as Wendy, Kamulus and Justice began discussing their next move, Matthew didn't understand anything on the map at all. There were names of places of Cloud 9 he'd never heard of and he didn't know the first thing about battle maps. He tried listening to what everyone was saying and understood somethings they were saying, and so he got a pretty good mental image of what was happening. Basically the map was showing the Motherland-controlled territories and Reich-controlled territories. Some places on both sides were marked in various ways, circled, crossed out, or labeled with comments and notes. Matthew was right, it was a battle map.

"Since the destruction of Fort Dane, we've decided to take one of their bases as tribute. The Reich doesn't use things like protocol 21, so if we take a base then we'll have more land under our control and we could use any Intel and weapons they have," said Kamulus. "We've decided that we should take this base right here." Kamulus pointed at a place that was relatively close to where the Motherland territories end and where the Reich territories start. It basically seemed like the entire east and west sides were at war apart from a few neutral countries here and there. "The Ostremo Outpost."

"Is there anything important we should know about this outpost or is it just the regular base?" Justice asked.

"The entire outpost is about 5,250 square feet , so it's pretty normal sized as far as outposts go. Given its size we've ruled out any anti-aircraft guns and any other advanced technology, but there are watch towers suspected of hiding machine gun nests and or snipers. This base is unusually heavenly defended with infantry and mobile units, and every 2 miles for 10 miles there's either small camps or patrols in groups ranging from fifteen to thirty men."

"That sounds like a lot for some normal outpost," Wendy commented. "They might just be disguising themselves because they're hiding something."

"My thoughts exactly," Kamulus agreed. "This seems kind of sketchy, so instead of sending an entire battalion of men straight into the outpost we've decided to take some precautionary measures. General Wilson will fill you in."

One of the other officers, an older man spoke. "Here's what we want to do. Since this base may be more important than the Reich is letting on, we're sending in a garrison of 200 men to make camp 50 miles from the outpost." He pointed on the map where these men would be stationed. "Then we'll drop off a small infiltration squad 25 miles out to go make first contact and try to break through their defenses. If the squad needs reinforcements, the garrison will ride in transport choppers. Attack choppers flying nearby will make attack runs while the transports drop the men off to assist the squad in the fight. Essentially the infiltration squad's mission is to be as stealthy as possible and to eliminate any threats before they're able to warn Ostremo of our mission to take the outpost. Pretty straightforward and simple, so this should be an easy victory."

"Don't say that, General," Kamulus said. "They could be hiding something, so this could go sideways very quickly." He turned to Justice again. "Do you have any suggestions on who shall be the infiltration team?"

"Yes, I have two. My brother shall be one of them."

"Wait what?" A surprised Matthew asked.

"This will be your first official mission. You should experience the war in most of its battles so you can become a more hardened soldier. This seems like the perfect opportunity, unless you'd rather not fight."

"No, I do want to fight," Matthew insisted. "Its just I don't have any training."

"Cloud 9 is full of magic, and people who will help you out," said Wendy, patting his shoulder.

"Then it's settled, King Matthew will go on this mission," Kamulus said. "Queen Mary, take the king and Sergeant-major Corduroy to the selection chamber."

"Understood," Said Justice. "I'll see you later."

Then the three teleported once more.

Matthew didn't freak out this time when he suddenly found himself somewhere else.

He found himself in some building that resembled a base, with vehicles on the ground outside and people bustling about again, this time they were all soldiers.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"The Selection Chamber," said Wendy. "The Motherland's army is very large, so whenever we have something as small as an infiltration group, they get selected by the Queen and the militant leaders we have. The selection varies in the nature of the mission and the skills of the soldiers, It's used all the time. I've been selected to go on some missions, but nothing like the mission you're going on."

"So who's picking my team?"

"I will this time," Justice answered. "Usually the Militant leaders do, but this is your first mission so I want to choose. Just go take a seat and I'll be right back." Justice walked away, leaving Matthew and Wendy by themselves.

Matthew sat down in a nearby chair as his head started to spin. _He was going on his first mission. With a bunch of strangers. And he'd probably die._ He took a couple deep breaths in an effort to calm himself down, but the anxiety he was feeling had grown and pretty soon his steady breathing turned into him hyperventilating in fear.

"Dude, you okay?" Wendy asked, noticing Matthew's nervousness.

"I don't know," he said. "I'm scared."

"Don't sweat it dude, just do what your team tells you to do and try not to die and you'll be fine."

Matthew wasn't convinced, but he appreciated Wendy's kind and reassuring words and that little bit of confidence she gave him somehow managed to calm his down, his breathing back at its normal pace. She was really the only one he could trust at the moment.

After a few minutes Justice came back. "Come on, follow me to your new team."

Matthew got up and he and Wendy followed her through the building until they reached a vehicle depot of sorts with humvees and military trucks. There was one where a couple of people were standing by, which appeared to be part of Matthew's squad. He was proven right when Justice led them to them.

"Matthew, this is Ahsoka Tano and Leon S. Kennedy."

The one named Leon was a man in his late thirties with almost pale-blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. He wore a leather jacket over a black dress shirt and faded blue jeans, with light brown shoes. He had a pistol holstered to his waist in a leather holster. His expression was emotionless, which gave the impression that he'd either seen a lot of messed up things or he wasn't a very positive person in life. Matthew would watch how he acted around Leon.

The one named Ahsoka actually made Matthew have a double take once he laid eyes in her. Not because she was ugly or unattractive in any way (which she definitely wasn't), but more so because she wasn't human. This way to describe her was she had red skin, a mass of white and blue striped flesh that snaked down to both of her shoulders that somewhat resembled hair, blue eyes and maroon colored fingernails. She wore a tight fitted hide one piece outfit with a dark brown belt around her waist with two long and skinny pipes with a button and leather grips on both of them.

As Justice approach them, Matthew felt a little nervous. He was already scared out of his mind about this mission he was going on shortly after arriving to Cloud 9, and now he's finding out that he'll be going on this mission with a bunch of strangers. He isn't a very social person, and Justice knows this, so why she insisted on pairing him with these new people was beyond him.

"Queen Mary," Ahsoka said once they approached. "Good to see you again."

"It's always a pleasure seeing you Ahsoka," Justice said with a smile. "And Leon, glad to see that you haven't become a walking corpse yet."

"Yeah, don't plan on having that happen anytime soon," Leon replied.

"Guys, this is my brother Matthew," Justice said, taking Matthew's hand. "He's our new king and he'll be going on this mission with you."

"Yes, I've heard of you. It'll be a pleasure serving you m'lord," Leon said, extending his hand out. Feeling very shy and uneasy, Matthew took his hand and shook it.

"King Eskalion, it's an an honor going on this mission with you," Ahsoka said, politely bowing her head.

"It's good meeting the both of you," Matthew said as calmly and non-nervous as he could.

"So what's the mission?" Leon asked.

Justice reached into her pocket and handed Leon a strange disk-life object that he put in his own pocket.

"That has the entire mission briefing on it," she explained. "Matthew was already briefed by Kamulus and all the other officers, so he knows about it. Also this is Matthew's first mission, so make sure you guys help him out with anything he needs and answer any questions he may have, okay?"

"Understood," they both said with a salute.

"Welp, I'm gonna go home and see the family," Wendy said. "Take care of yourself Matthew."

"Will I ever see you're again?" he asked.

"Hey Cloud 9's a big place, I'm sure our paths will cross again someday." She ruffled his hair before walking away.

"You guys are dismissed," said Justice. "Go load up in one of the gunships and there'll be one more person joining you before you head out."

"So we're a 4 man infiltration squad?" Asked Leon.

"Yes, and everything else you need to know will be on that holodisk."

"Well alright, let's go get loaded up. Follow me, my Lord," Ahsoka said.

Leon and Ahsoka started walking away and Matthew followed suite until Justice stopped him.

"Be careful Matthew," she whispered in his ear.

He gulped hard but nodded his head. Then he ran to join Leon and Ahsoka, leaving Justice behind.

"Where are we going?" He asked once he caught up with them.

"We're headed towards the armory, then we're heading to the hanger where a transport helicopter is waiting to drop us off at our destination for the mission," answered Leon.

"We need to get some kind of weapon for you as well," Ahsoka added.

"I have this." Matthew pulled the combat knife he used to save Wendy from his waistband.

"Well that's a start, but you need some kind of ranged weapon as well. Maybe a gun."

"I see that Leon has a pistol already, but you don't have a weapon," Matthew said.

I have two weapons," she said with a smile. He took the two weird cylinders off of her belt and pressed the button on each of them. Immediately a green blade sprung out of one end of the cylinders. They were very bright, and both of them were around 3 feet long. The blades emitted a low humming noise.

"What's on Earth is that!?" Matthew asked in surprise.

"These are my lightsabers," she answered.

"Wait, are you a Jedi?"

"Yes i am indeed. How'd you know?" she asked, deactivating her sabers.

Matthew was about to answer, but he remembered what Wendy told him about C9 Awareness. Maybe Ahsoka and Leon didn't have the ability like Wendy and Justice had.

So he just said "Lucky guess."

The armory was the size of 3 high school auditoriums and it looked exactly like what an armory would look like. On each of the wall there were racks upon racks of firearms and swords, daggers and attachments, and a bunch of other various things the place. To the far right of the armory was a shooting range for sharpshooters wishing to show what they're made of, and the far right was a gym of sorts with wrestling mats all across the floor where people could either wrestle or fence together.

"So now that you're with the Motherland Army now we need to get you two weapons; a firearm and some kind of close quarters weapon," Leon said. "That knife is a start, but some of the Reichsmen are swordfighters, so you need something like that."

"I have no idea how to use a sword,"Matthew said flatly, kind of annoyed that he's already expected to know how to sword fight.

"I can help you with that," Ahsoka offered. "Swords and lightsabers are practically the same thing."

"Do we have the time for all that? We need to get moving," Leon said.

"I'll just teach him a few things and then we'll split, okay?"

"Ugh, fine," Leon finally gave in.

"Great." Ahsoka unclipped her sabers from her belt and held one out to Matthew. "Take it."

Matthew hesitated for a minute before taking the weapon. He was afraid he'd hurt Leon or Ahsoka, or maybe kill himself trying to turn the damn thing on. When he did finally take the weapon he made sure the blade wouldn't stab anyone and he ignited it. The bright green blade sprang forth until it reached its full length and it began to hum in his grasp.

"Follow me over to the training area," said Ahsoka and he followed her over to the padded area of the floor while Leon went away to arm and armor up. They stopped on the mats and Ahsoka backed up a few feet from Matthew before turning around and facing him before unclipping her other lightsaber and igniting it as well. She held the saber with one hand, got into a fighting stance and waited for Matthew to copy her form, so he got into the same stance she did.

"This is your basic fighting stance, Form I," Ahsoka explained. "This is the form you take when you're about how have a sparring match or duel. There are many other stances and forms of fighting, but for now we're going to stick to the basics. Try to strike me."

Matthew shot here a look of shock. "But what if I hurt you?"

"Then you're a better swordsman than I am. Now strike me."

Despite the danger of the situation Matthew tightly held the grip of the lightsaber and charged. Once he got close enough he swung the blade at Ahsoka, aiming for help torso. Then right before the saber made contact Ahsoka directed her blade and deflected the attack with ease.

"Again," she said.

This time Matthew didn't hesitate when he went in for the attack. He readied himself and swung the saber harder at her, yet she still easily deflected it like it was nothing.

"Is that all you got? Pathetic," She taunted, egging him on.

Matthew's anger began to grow and he went in to attack again but this time he attacked twice, aiming for Ahsoka's torso and quickly following up with a strike to her legs. She easily blocked the first attack but the second on caught her off guard. She barely deflected the lower attack and Matthew's lightsaber nearly severed both of her legs.

"Good," she said with a proud smile one her face. "Very good. When your opponent expects you to use a certain attack method it's good to change it up because it catches your opponent off guard. And this is just training. In a real duel the swordplay would usually be much faster and more deadly." Ahsoka got in her stance again. "Let's start again, but this time I'll go on the offense. Defend yourself against my attacks." Then without warning she slashed at Matthew's neck in a sideways arc. In a very surprised and unprepared manner he backpedaled from the attack and dodged it but Ahsoka wasn't done. She immediately unleashed a flurry of attacks that Matthew could barely keep up with, but he somehow managed to defend himself. Ahsoka gradually began to strike slower and slower, but she also started hitting harder and harder. With each attack Matthew blocked the more tired he became until the point of near exhaustion. As Ahsoka continued her relentless attack Matthew saw an opportunity to strike. She raised her lightsaber high in the air and came down with the intent to force Matthew to use the last of his energy to block the attack, but instead Matthew sidestepped and the blade harmlessly pass him. In that instant he lunged with his own saber and aimed to stab Ahsoka's heart. Surprised by his sudden attack Ahsoka slammed her blade into his and held it there, stopping Matthew's blade and locking both of their blades together in a standstill. They struggled against each other's strength; Matthew keep trying to push his blade further towards her and Ahsoka strained to prevent his blade from stabbing her.

There they stood, blades locked and bodies still as they tried to overpower the other. Matthew gritted his teeth as he tried to use all of his remaining energy to stab Ahsoka. While they stood there he saw her smile a little bit.

"What are you happy about?" He asked through his clenched teeth.

"You are stronger than I expected," she replied. "You will make an excellent swordsman."

She used her lightsaber and pushed him away from her, freeing them both from the strain. Matthew backed away and got back into his stance, panting and gripping the lightsaber tight, ready for another attack.

"I think that's enough for now," she said, deactivating her lightsaber and clipping it back onto her belt.

"Thank you for that, that was fun," Matthew said, also deactivating his lightsaber before handing it to Ahsoka. "Can you teach me more someday?"

"Maybe, but there are other Jedi knights who are have further mastered lightsaber techniques than I have. You might gain more knowledge if you trained under one of the Jedi masters I'm acquainted with."

"Is there a place where I can find all of the Jedi?" He asked.

"Jedi have their own homes but there is a Jedi temple that most of them conjugate often. I'll take you there one day,"

"Are you two done playing with your laser pointers now?" Leon asked, coming back from the armory wearing black military fatigues and holding a rifle.

"Do you not support the Jedi's means of fighting?" Matthew asked him, a little bothered by his behavior towards them practicing.

"I don't mess with all that laser stuff and Hodge podge mind powers, none of that crap can have any kind of defense against a good gun," he answered, gesturing to his rifle.

"How many Jedi have you met?" Ahsoka asked. "Do you even know what you're talking about or are you as ignorant as you seem?"

"I believe in things that I can see. I don't see some sort of all-powerful force that flows through every living creature. Just saying."

"Whatever," Ahsoka said dismissively. "You keep your beliefs and I'll keep mine. No point in either of us getting our panties all in a bunch over it."

"Agreed," Leon replied. "So are you two done yet?"

"For now we are," she answered, turning to Matthew. "Maybe at some point in the future we could train some more, and even though I'm still learning myself I could teach you everything I know."

Matthew really liked the idea of that, especially since he didn't know many people yet. In response to her he said "I would really like that Ahsoka, thank you."

"Alright, now that we've gotten through lightsaber dueling 101," Leon said, clapping his hands together. "Let's teach you how to use this." He reached for a holster behind his back and pulled out a pistol that he promptly set in Matthew's hands. Matthew looked at the pistol and shuddered a bit. It looked almost like the exact same one he had used back at Fort Dane, and that mental connection Matthew made brought back bad memories from his first taste of conflict, one's he really didn't want to relive.

"What, you've never seen a gun before?" Leon asked, which Matthew didn't understand. Then he realized he had been staring at the gun like it was new to him, and he said "Oh, I have before. I even used one earlier in fact, but..."

"Don't worry about it kid, I know it's kind of scary," said Leon, completely misunderstanding what Matthew was saying, but the boy said nothing of the matter. "Come on, we've got some targets set up for you to practice on."

Matthew followed Leon and Ahsoka across the vast training center over to the shooting range where the targets were, wooden cut-outs made into the shape of a human being to increase the realism. The range consisted of 8 lanes where people could practice on their marksmanship, and Leon had already set up one lane with various targets, some in the open and some partially hidden by small wooden walls simulating cover in an actual combat environment.

"Alright, here." Leon held out the pistol, which Matthew took from him and held it firmly in both hands. "Aim it at one of the targets."

Matthew did as he was instructed, looking through the pistol's iron sights and lining them up with one of the targets, aiming for the bullseye in the center.

"Okay, empty the clip into the targets. Go slow, take your time and don't just pull the trigger, slowly ease into it," Leon instructed.

Matthew showed no hesitation in pulling the trigger, but the gun just clicked a few times instead of firing.

"Turn off the safety. Flip the little switch on the side," Leon said in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry," Matthew replied sheepishly, turning off the safety before returning his aim back to the targets down range.

"Okay, you may fire whenever you're ready."

After a few seconds of being given the all clear to shoot, Matthew took his first shot at the closest target, which was 10 feet away. Then he switched to the other targets that were slightly farther away, alternating between all of the targets until the clip had been completely emptied. The whole thing lasted about 30 seconds, but afterwards Matthew felt pretty good and was getting more excited to the aspect of learning how to use a handgun.

After Matthew had finished up the clip Leon walked over to the targets to get an up-close look at how well Matthew had done.

"Damn son," Leon said, walking back over to Matthew. "Out of 7 bullets you missed 2. I'm actually pretty impressed kid."

Matthew smiled, filling with pride at his accomplishment. "Does that mean I can become a great marksman?"

"Not necessarily," Leon replied. "But you could be after years of training. And that's just with a pistol, there are many different types and variations of firearms you'll be using as long as you're in active combat."

"Do you know how to use any guns?" Matthew asked Ahsoka, turning to face the quiet observer.

"Yes but not these kinds of guns," Ahsoka answered. "Not ones that use terrestrial or solid projectiles."

"What does that mean?" Matthew asked, interested by her unusual words to describe what firearms she knew how to use.

"You know how my lightsaber's blade is a laser that can cut through just about anything?" Matthew nodded. "Well the guns I know how to use shoot lasers instead of bullets."

"Whoa really?" An giddy Matthew questioned, his eyes lighting up with excitement. He then turned to Leon and asked "Can you teach me how to use a laser gun?"

"For now let's just stick to the basics until you know your way around a gun," he said.

"And we don't call them laser guns, we call them blasters," Ahsoka added.

"Alright..." Matthew said disappointingly. "So now what?"

"Well it's obvious you're pretty decent with a handgun already," Leon said. "Now let's see what kind of damage you can do with a primary weapon. Follow me."

Leon led Matthew over to one of the various weapon racks on the walls of the training center, where a large of selection of "primary weapons", - assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, submachine guns, and various light machine guns - but what Matthew thought as odd was that for some weapons there was a smaller version of it right next to it. Then he realized that all the weapons had smaller counterparts of themselves, and he decided to ask Leon about it.

"Hey Leon? Why is there a smaller version of each gun?"

"Well you see Matthew in a war as large as the one we're fighting, civilians have to fight as well, including young teeenage children as well," Leon explained. "Smaller versions are made so the weapons are easier for younger people or teenage kids to use, which will be the same case for you. Since you're not an adult yet you'll be given one of the smaller guns until you're old and strong enough to wield the actual weapons. Now the smaller weapons are used by adults sometimes too, as the smaller and lighter design of the smaller guns allow more mobility and easier to handle and operate. Unfortunately there are a few setbacks with the smaller weapons, the bullets fired from them do slightly less damage than the and the lighter designs usually leads to more recoil than the full size ones, but they still get the job done just fine. So, see any you like?"

Matthew took a good look at the huge variety of guns lining the weapon racks, wondering what kind of gun would suit him. Was he a shotgun man? No, the power of the shots would probably blow him off his feet. Plus he'd have to be pretty close to an enemy to use one and Matthew wasn't ready for an encounter like that, not after Fort Dane. He wanted to put a fair amount of distance from him and the Reichsmen soldiers, so he thought maybe a regular old assault rifle would be fine. He wanted one that had fire selection on it, where it could shoot single shots, 3-round bursts, and full auto so he could get a better grasp on other kinds of weapons as well.

"How about this one?" Matthew suggested, pointing at a standard M16 military assault rifle.

"That's a good choice," Leon said with approval. "That's what most new recruits choose."

Leon took the rifle off the wall and an ammunition crate of mags for the gun as well. He held the gun with one hand and the ammo crate in the other and turned back to Matthew. "Let's go back to the shooting range. Let's teach you how to use this bad boy."

* * *

Leon spent the next hour or so teaching Matthew how to load the gun, turn the safety on and off and good ergonomics for firing the gun, then spent another hour having Matthew take shots at each of the targets with each of the 3 different fire selections settings. After a while of target practice Matthew decided he liked the single shot setting the best because it was easiest to control and it would teach him how to conserve ammo better. When he first started he was only able to make 7 out of 30 bullets per clip hit a target, but by the time they had finished up Matthew was able to make 21 out of 30. Leon was proud of Matthew, and so was Ahsoka and that made Matthew feel more confident and less anxious about going on his first mission. In fact Matthew actually looked forward to fighting the Nazis, and he wanted to go on the mission as soon as possible.

"So when are we heading out?" Matthew asked after target practice.

"We need to get you a uniform like I'm wearing," Leon replied. "We can't have any soldiers fighting the enemy in their civilian clothing. Let's get you suited up.

Matthew and Ahsoka followed Leon to a corner of the training center where a large cylindrical-shaped machine with several buttons and blinking lights sat. It looked like it had a sliding door that you'd open and close behind you once you stepped in, and it was painted so no one could see inside. The top of the cylinder was open without a roof and the words "SIZE FITS ALL" in big bold red letters was painted at the top.

"This magical machine can tell you what size clothing you wear by scanning your body, and it magically puts the right clothing onto your body. Then it sends your current outfit to your locker in the military locker room in the barracks, safe and sound while you wear your new uniform." Ahsoka explained.

"Uhhm, magical machine?" Matthew said, super confused at what he was looking at and even more confused by everything she just said.

"Yep, the Motherland military uses magic and magical machines like this one," Leon added. "You don't have magic where you come from, do you?"

"No we definitely don't," Matthew replied sheepishly, embarrassed that they had to explain what this machine was like he was some child who just discovered his shadow. "Are there any side effects from using this...thing...that I should know about?"

"Nope, just open the door, step inside and close it shut behind you," Ahsoka instructed.

Matthew looked at door of the strange new contraption with a mixed expression of curiosity and fear. He hesitantly reached out and slid the door open, but didn't step inside.

"You need a push?" Ahsoka chucked, holding out her hands with her palms facing Matthew as if she were actually going to push him in.

"Ha, like I'd ever need a push into-" His words were cut off when Ahsoka actually _did_ push him. He stumbled forward and fell straight into the "SIZE FITS ALL" machine and before he could react the door slid shut behind him.

"See? How hard was that?" He heard Leon say through the door.

"Easy for you to say,.you deal with this kind of technology all the time," said Matthew, looking around the interior of the small machine. "What does this keyboard do?" He asked after spotting the object built into the wall, with a small screen right next to it.

"What does the screen say?" Ahsoka asked.

Matthew looked at the screen and read of what it said. "Select location, and there's a flashing cursor inside of a toolbar."

"Type in Barracks locker room number 2-769 and hit enter," Leon explained step by step. "After that there should be a huge grid of pixelated lockers, some that are black and some that are clear."

Matthew did what he was told, clicking away at the keyboard until the grid of lockers popped up and took over the entire screen. "Okay I'm at the lockers, now what?"

"Find a locker that's empty and select it, then hit rename and call it whatever you want so you'll remember that one's yours. Then hit the button that says "send clothing" and hit enter. Now after that happens you're clothes will get sucked up right off your body by a tube that'll come out of the ceiling above you. Then it'll automatically dress you with a uniform that fits you and your regular clothes will be sent to the locker you chose and they'll stay there until you return to retrieve them after the mission."

"Uhhhh okay then..." Matthew trailed off, pretending like everything Leon was telling him wasn't the weirdest thing in the at the moment. He clicked away at the keyboard, following Leon's instructions until he hit the last button. Immediately a tube opened up from a large hole in the ceiling and his clothes were -quite literally- sucked off him completely, leaving him in nothing but his skivvies and disappearing up into the tube. Then before Matthew could react a uniform was shot out from the same tube from before and the strangest thing happened.

The uniform had immediately become worn by Matthew, as if he were dressed in it the whole time. The uniform consisted of black fatigues and combat pants, black leather steel-toed combat boots, a black parka and what appeared to be some sort of cape it seemed.

"Okay..." Matthew just said to himself, not even going to question what just happened. "I've gotten my uniform. I'm coming out now." He slid the door open and stepped out of the strange contraption, closing the door behind him.

"Looks good on you," Ahsoka commented, making Matthew's cheeks burn a bright red.

"I guess that's everything. These are yours now," Leon said, holding out an M1911 pistol and an M16 rifle that had a strap clipped onto it. Matthew accepted the weapons, putting the strap of the rifle around his shoulder and sticking the pistol into the side of his pants like an improvised holster.

"Are we ready?" Leon asked.

"I've got everything I'll need," said Ahsoka.

"I'm good," said Matthew, feeling like a million bucks with his uniform and weapons.

"Alright then let's get this show on the road," Leon said.

Matthew followed Ahsoka and Leon out of the training center and outside the entire building to some sort of loading dock it seemed. There were garages filled with military land vehicles and high grade militant equipment all over a large airport it appeared to be. There were runways large enough for checking commercial airlines or smaller craft like helicopters and fighter jets, which were also sitting around. Military staff and troopers were madly dashing around the entire area, either loading up in the various trucks, humvee transports and planes, or running around testing weapons and performing repairs on the vehicles instead. It looked as though the large group of soldiers and staff were preparing for an all-out war.

"What's going on?" Matthew asked, observing all the chaos.

"This is normal for us actually," Ahsoka replied. "The war is requiring all of our willpower and fighters to answer the cry of battle."

"Come on, we've wasted enough time already," said Leon, pointing towards a small transport chopper. Let's get going."

The trio walked through the mob of scrambling personnel and made it to the chopper, where a folding table with 4 backpacks filled with equipment sat and where 4 people stood; Justice, wearing the same beautiful dress from before, Kamulus, in the same outfit of a blue hoodie and khaki short and his cybernetic extensions from before, a Hispanic boy in his later teenage years dressed in a handyman's outfit that was covered in blotches of dried oil and burned in various places, and...

Matthew couldn't believe who he saw. It was **Ellie.**

Seeing her there gave Matthew a sudden surge of emotions; anger, sadness, a hint of fear and some other feeling he couldn't place at the moment. Either way seeing her wasn't the greatest thing in the world right now.

He narrowed his eyes as they approached. "What is she doing here?"

"She's the 4th person on your team," Kamulus answered. "You needed another member, and the Queen here thought that she was the perfect one for the job."

"Hey Ellie," Ahsoka said causally, giving her a small wave.

"Sup," Ellie said in response.

"I take it you're familiar with each other already?" Leon asked.

"Yeah, we're cool with each other," Ahsoka said. "We've went on missions before and we hang out sometimes."

"Excellent, this makes everything easier then," said Kamulus, clapping his hands together before turning to the Hispanic boy. "Take it away Leo."

The boy Leo was tinkering with some equipment from one of the backpacks that were on the table when Kamulus spoke to him. He looked up from his work and nodded to the cyborg-boy before taking the backpack he had and emptied out the contents, which consisted of a few pieces of technology Matthew and his team would need for their mission. He took the first object in his hand and held it up; it looked like a single ear bud attached to a wire or something.

"This is your standard earpiece, which you'll use to communicate with HQ and each other if you get separated from each other for any reason," he explained. Then he pointed to a specific part of the earpiece before continuing. "The earpiece has two buttons. Hold down one button to talk to each other, hold down the other button to talk to HQ. The entire earpiece sits over the top little part of your ear and hangs off a bit, and you just stick it into your ear canal, simple as that." He put the earpiece back into the backpack and picked up the next item, a small electronic that Rose resembled an old Gameboy Advanced.

"This is your state-of-the-art GPS tracking device," said Leo. "It can locate you, any landmarks and all geographical features as far as 50 miles from your location at all times. I'd advise you not to lose this bad boy, otherwise it's going to be a very long walk home after the mission."

He put the GPS down and picked up the final items, which looked like three metal spheres the size of tennis balls that had some sort of electronic buttons on them.

"This thing is a weapon of my own design," Leo said with a prideful smile on his face. "I call it the smart grenade, since that's really all there is to it. Each one has four grenade variants; frag, smoke, flash, and EMP. You click the blue button to activate it, then use a little dial on the side to select which type of variant you wish to use, which is displayed on a little screen right here." Leo pointed to the features of the grenade while he talked. "Then after you've selected which one you want, hit the blue button again and give it a good throw, simple as that."

"Is that all Valdez? They're kind of in a hurry," Kamulus said impatiently.

"One last thing. Each of you have all of this equipment in each of your packs, and make sure you put it all to good use. That's all I've got to say, so good luck guys!" He flashed the team a peace sign and a toothy smile and we went off.

"Man that guy talks too much," Kamulus muttered under his breath before turning his attention back to the team and saying "Alright, now I want all of you to make sure this mission goes as smooth as possible. The Reich hit us hard and fast at Fort Dane, so we can't afford to mess this up. And you three." He pointed at Leon, Ahsoka and Ellie. "I want you to help out King Matthew as much as you can. Teach him the ropes so he knows the deal and make sure he comes back in one piece or I'll have your heads on a like. Understood?"

"Yes Lord Kamulus," said Ahsoka.

"Understood General." Leon saluted to him as well.

"Fine, whatever," Ellie said in an annoyed tone of voice and narrowing her eyes at Matthew, which made him shoot her a dirty look. She rolled her eyes in response.

"Good, now load up!" Kamulus ordered, and the helicopter roared to life, the pilots that were evidently already in the cockpit starting up the engine, propellers slowly beginning to swing.

"Come on," Leon said as the three took their backpacks off the table and got into the passenger section of the chopper and took their seats. Matthew grabbed his pack as well but was stopped when Justice grabbed his hand.

"Hold on, we need to talk," she said, a concerned look plastered onto her face.

"What do you want?" Matthew said harsher than he wanted to but not apologizing for it.

"I just...want you to be careful. You don't know this but I've been here countless times before and this world is just so different than ours it's insane. And this war? It's terrible, and now my little brother is jumping straight into the fight? I'm just so scared for you, scared that..." her voice broke and she didn't continue that sentence.

Seeing the level of concern in both her expression and her words, Matthew squeezed her hand and said in a softened tone "I'll be okay Justice, I can protect myself. Besides none of these guys will let anything bad happen to me."

"That doesn't make me any less scared," she said with a weak smile. "But thank you for trying. And Matthew? Please be nice to Ellie. She didn't want to hurt you like she did but she had to. I promise it'll get better, I really do, but you'll have to be patient."

Matthew frowned. "Why should I do that? What has she ever done for me?" By now the chopper was fully started up, so they had to shout over the noise of the propellers to hear each other.

"Just trust me on this Matthew. I know some people who can see the future, so trust me when I say that everything with eventually work out. Please? For me?"

Matthew was still angry at Justice for everything that's happened so far and he blamed her for all of his misfortunes up until now, but despite all that he couldn't stay mad at her, especially while seeing her worry about him. It was just one of the things he couldn't do; stay mad at the ones he loved. He sighed and said "Fine, I'll...try to be nice. No promises though."

"Thank you Matthew.I left you a few things in your backpack, for safekeeping I guess." She looked at him up and down, admiring him with his new uniform and weapons. "You look like you were born to wear that uniform, you look handsome. Make sure you put that rifle to good use too."

"Thank you, I will." He gave her a kiss on her cheek before heading over to the chopper and taking a seat next to Ahsoka.

"And Matthew?" Justice called out.

"Yeah?" He shouted back.

"I love you."

Matthew smiled. "I love you too."

"Good luck guys!" Shouted Kamulus as the chopper began it's gradual ascend.

Within a few seconds the chopper carrying Matthew's team has Ross high into the sky and headed off towards their mission. Matthew was pumped and ready to prove his worth to his new comrades.

Unbeknownst to Matthew, this mission wouldn't be going according to plan. In fact things would end up going haywire and putting lives on the line. He would come back a little different after this mission, and the things he would witness would forever haunt the young boy...

* * *

 **So since it's been so long since I've updated this story, I wanted it to be extra long and detailed to make up for lost time. Hope you enjoyed it and as always take care and I'll see you in the next one, which definitely won't take as long as this one did. Peace.**


End file.
